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Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh is a medical examiner with
the Massachusetts State Coroner’s office. She has a knack for solving
crimes—this comes from her hard-headed stubbornness to see justice done (despite
the trouble she gets herself into).
Jordan was born and raised in South
Boston. Her birthday is
September 11th, 1969. (Or it could be
April 3rd—if
 we go by the season 4 episode Embraceable You). She’s Irish Catholic. She
attended Saint Mary Immaculate High School.
Jordan’s favorite color is pink or purple
(she’s named both as being her favorite). When asked
once by Lily if she could go to one place she’s never
been, Jordan replied Egypt. She wants to see the
pyramids. Her favorite smell is cinnamon toast. She
once made it for her mother when she was 9 years old and
it’s one of her happy memories of her mother. She had
her first kiss at age 12. In high school she was voted
‘Most likely to do 5 to 10’ (or so she claims).
Jordan’s mentally disturbed mother, Emily
was murdered (on September 18, 1979) when Jordan was ten
years old—a mystery she's still trying to solve.
Jordan’s mother had a miscarriage when Jordan was five.
Emily spent some time in a mental hospital during that
time period. Jordan, as well as her father Max, an
ex-cop, is still haunted by the unsolved murder of her
mother/his wife. This tragic incident has shaped
Jordan’s empathy with the voiceless victims she
encounters. She channels her inner anger and grief
towards piecing together the stories of her victims (the
bodies).
Jordan discovered she has a troubled
half-brother named James Horton who some how figured
into the death of their mother. He was apparently given
to the Horton family soon after his birth. Years later,
James kidnapped Jordan and held her hostage in an
abandoned building that he claims is his childhood home.
He didn’t want to hurt Jordan though. He just wanted
her to know what he’d missed out on—a family. James
jumps through a window into the Charles River, when the
police arrive. He is assumed dead, but his body
has not been found yet.
Jordan has trouble with authority.
Despite taking mandatory anger management classes when
she was in LA, she often ignores her "mental filter"
when it comes to speaking her mind. She ignores most
rules imposed upon her. After trouble with her boss and
job in Los Angeles, California (he has a restraining
order against her) she returned to her Boston roots
where Dr. Garret Macy (her boss) gave her a second
chance. He was the only person left who’d take Jordan
on.
She’s worked hard to maintain positive
relationships with her coworkers, authority figures and
her dad. Some days it works others it doesn't. Lucky
for her, Dr.
Garret Macy rarely blows his stack and cuts her slack
due to her uncanny knack for ultimately arriving at the
truth.
When it comes to her cases (in which she
becomes too personally involved), Jordan first analyzes
the forensic evidence (body, trauma, wounds, etc). If
she needs further insight, she role-plays to get into
the mindset of the victims. In essence, she puts herself
in the place of the victim and imagines the last minutes
of their life with their attacker. By using the hard
evidence found at the crime and a reasoned examination
of the facts, Jordon discovers the truth behind assorted
crimes.
 Jordan’s admitted that she’s a sucker for
the underdog and that’s her blind spot. More than once
people have taken advantage of her that way.
Jordan’s relationships are short and
commitment never figures into the bargain. For Jordan,
it's usually, ‘Wham! Bam! Thank you, and goodbye’. She
goes running whenever things start to get serious. This
attitude especially frustrates Boston police Det. Woody
Hoyt, a charming cop who wants to get closer to Jordan. But,
as she said "I have issues." And she’d not kidding.
Commitment and Jordan are two words that don't go too well
together.In season 5 Jordan goes on a personal
rollercoaster ride. It starts with Woody being shot.
She's visibly distraught and is ready to be there for Woody.
She puts her 'issues' behind her. However, Woody
chooses that moment to go on a self pity trip and pushes
Jordan away. Jordan doesn't fight, she does as he
demands.
In October of 2006 Jordan meets JD Pollack, a reporter
and the two hit it off. At first as adversaries, but
that soon changes and they start dating. For the first
time Jordan lets herself care for someone and truly tries to
make a relationship work--rather than go running.
Despite her best efforts she sabotages her relationship with
JD when she sleeps with Woody. Jordan and JD break up,
but the relationship did Jordan some good. She's grown
up--emotionally.
Jordan tried to become a foster parent in April 2006.
She became attached to a young 15 year old girl who loses
her father when he's shot.
Jordan lives in
apartment #311, 227 Pearl
Street, Boston, MA. (There is a Pearl Street in Boston,
but not a building #227.)
Note: Her apartment number was changed to 3d in season 4.
VIDEO
BIOGRAPHY
Jill (Jillian) Hennessy
(as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh)
Birth
date and Place:
November 25, 1969 in Edmonton, Alberta
Family:
Married to Paolo Mastropietro. They had their first
child, baby boy Marco Mastropietro in the Fall of 2003.
Jill
has a twin sister, Jacqueline, who works for a Canadian
fashion magazine. Jill was born three minutes after her
twin and is 5’-8”.
Her
parents divorced when she was only a young girl, and her
grandmother played a large part in raising her and her
sister. It was during this time that young Hennessey
took up cooking in order to help care for her family,
and her passion for food would eventually lead her to
open Hennessey's Tavern in Northvale, NJ,
She
graduated from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada's Grand River
Collegiate (high school).
She
plays guitar and has an amazing voice.
At
fifteen, she began modeling in Toronto. Her grandmother
would drive her all over town. Although she had
considered pursuing the scholastic route like Jacqueline
had decided to do, she knew she had to try acting or
she'd regret it. So at seventeen, she moved to Toronto,
choosing to by-pass Grade 13 in favor of acting.
Facts:
Jill speaks Italian, French and Spanish. She is also
fluent in German.
She has Irish, Italian, Swedish, French and Ukrainian
ancestry.
Fimography:
In
1988, both Hennessey and her sister got their first
breaks with small roles in director David Cronenberg's
acclaimed chiller Dead Ringers. In the following
few years, she would repeatedly turn up on the small
screen in Friday the 13th: The Series and The
Hitchhiker.
A
three-year stint on television's popular Law & Order as
ADA Claire Kincaid gained the rising starlet much
exposure. An Indie credit came with a supporting role
in director Mary Harron's I Shot Andy Warhol.
After roles in A Smile Like Yours and Most Wanted
made 1997 a memorable year for her, Hennessey took the
lead opposite pop star-turned-actor Jon Bon Jovi in the
1998 drama Row Your Boat. Subsequent films such
as Komodo
may have done little to advance Hennessey's career as a
serious thespian, but she expanded into writing and
directing with her all-star comedy The Acting Class in
2000. With more roles coming her way every day,
Hennessey took on the daunting task of portraying none
other that Jackie Kennedy in the 2001 miniseries
Jackie, Ethel, Joan: The Women of Camelot. Later
that year she took the lead role in the small-screen
drama Crossing Jordan, and it seemed as if she had
finally arrived when the show proved to be a success. In
2002, Hennessey joined an impressive cast for the
romantic comedy feature Pipe Dream.
See IMDb for complete
Filmography
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