Catherine Bell

Catherine Bell (born August 14, 1968) is a British-American actress who portrays the Cassandra "Cassie" Nightingale throughout The Good Witch TV Franchise.

Life and Career[]

Catherine was born in London but moved to California with her Iranian mother at the age of two. As a young girl, she acted in various TV advertisements but wasn't a child actor. After she graduated from high school she attended UCLA to study biology and pre-medicine, however, she dropped out of school in her sophomore year to become a model in Japan.^[1] In 1990 Catherine appeared in an episode of 'To Tell the Truth' and described herself as a massage therapist.^[2]

She eventually went back into acting in the early nineties, and became Isabella Rossellini's nude body double in "Death Becomes Her". In 1994, she starred in the Dolph Lundgren film Men of War, and then in 1995, she had a minor role in the NBC series JAG. The series was canceled but later picked up by CBS, who reconstructed the series around a female marine corps lawyer Sarah MacKenzie. Catherine auditioned for the part and got it - she went on to star in the series for nine seasons until it ended in 2005. From 2007 to 2013, Catherine starred in the Lifetime ensemble series Army Wives as Denise Sherwood until it was cancelled. She returned for the two-hour retrospective episode that concluded the series.

Catherine began her Hallmark Channel TV movie career in 2008, when she was cast as Cassie Nightingale in The Good Witch. The film was wildly successful and spawned six additional films - The Good Witch's Garden, The Good Witch's Gift, The Good Witch's Family, The Good Witch's Charm, The Good Witch's Destiny, and The Good Witch's Wonder. She also served as a co-executive producer for all seven TV movies. Catherine returned to the role of Cassie in 2015, for the Hallmark Channel original series, Good Witch. She starred in the series for seven seasons until its cancellation.

It was on the set of "Death Becomes Her" that she met Adam Beason, and the two would later get married in 1994 and have two children, a daughter, and a son. They were divorced in 2012.

Notes and Trivia[]

Catherine is fluent in both Persian and English.
When she was in her twenties she has Thyroid cancer which resulted in her having her entire Thyroid removed. She doesn't cover the scar with makeup in her television appearances, as she thinks it's cool.
She knows how to ride a Motorcycle.
There is a beetle named after her, the Agra Catbellae, a carabid beetle discovered in 2002.
She is the only cast member from the original TV film to appear in every movie and television episode consecutively.