"[S]he nailed the role of Sam immediately! ...... hands down."

Meet Ally Walker. She is not your typical air head blonde. Sure, her hair is gorgeous and even the hair business took notice (Clairol enrolled her for an ad campaign for an easy-to-use hair color). How about her studying in university biology and chemistry and working in a laboratory in her twenties with radioactive isotopes? She knows a thing or two.

Ally was born Allene Walker in on the 25th of August 1961 in Tullaholma, Tennessee. Her father was a scientist and her mother worked as an attorney. She was all geared up to follow her father's foot steps and she went to UC Santa Cruz where she majored in biology and chemistry, consequently leading to a job as a biochemist. But it was during a year she spent in London, at Richmond College of the Arts, that she discovered her interest in theater. Ally has appeared in the Shakespearean plays "Romeo And Juliet", "Taming of the Shrew" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Also, among her theater appearances is the Alan Ball play "Five Women Wearing The Same Dress", which premiered in New York 1993. Thomas Gibson and Allison Janney starred in the play alongside Ally.

Still, her introduction to the movie business was by far a matter of chance. She is having dinner with her boyfriend in Los Angeles when a guy walks up to them and starts saying that he thinks she has a great laugh et cetera and asks if she'd audition for a movie which he was working on. Ally is taken back but decides to try it out when it turns out that the guy really is a producer. She got the part but ended up on the cutting room floor. But, "I found my calling" she explains of her experiences. Ally went on to star in movies like "Singles", "Bed Of Roses", "Steal Big, Steal Little", "Universal Soldier" and "While You Were Sleeping". She has also starred in series such as "Santa Barbara", "True Blue" and "Moon Over Miami".

When the time arrived for Kim Moses and Ian Sander to choose their main character actress, there was no doubt of who would make the perfect Sam Waters: "We read many female actors for the role of Sam, but when Ally met with us she nailed the role of Sam immediately! ...... hands down" says Kim, and Ian adds that Ally brought beauty, sexiness, intelligence, humor and range to the role. Hear hear! ;)

"I was the female Columbo. Without the eye," Ally remarks on her character. "That's how I like to think of it. I always love a good whodunit, and when I read Profiler, it was the smartest woman [character] I'd read. She was like this fleshed out real person that could have been a guy. Because she's a woman, however, I think that she can do anything. Femininity is one of the strongest characteristics one can have. It is interesting to play a character with such a depth of emotion that most people don't get to play especially on TV. It can be a very dark show but I think it’s about conquering your fears and learning how to make life worth living."

Don't let Sam's seeming seriousness be confused with the real world. Co-stars Robert Davi and Julian McMahon say that once Ally gets a good start it takes her some time to calm down and stop laughing. After David E. Kelley created "Ally McBeal" our Ally speculated that she must have left quite an impression on the producer: in the beginning of the nineties Ally starred in one "L.A. Law" episode written by Kelley. Obviously he wanted to name his new series in honor of one and only Ally Walker.

Ally is married to producer John Landgraf. Their first son Jon Walker (Ally calls him Walker) was born in August 1997. In addition, they now have two other boys, the youngest of which was probably born in September 2003. Their family includes a dog called Gussy and a cat called Tigger. Ally says, "I stopped using products that are tested on animals when I got a dog." Now she enjoys spending time with her family and she practices yoga.

Picture:
Copyright: Hollywood Stars Unlimited
Bought from an auction at eBay.

Links:
:a l l y: w a l k e r
The Ally Walker Fan Task Force
The Unofficial Ally Walker Homepage!
allywalker(dot)com
The Ally Walker Page
Portrait Of A Profiler
Ally Walker's little kingdom
The World Of Sam Waters