10 Surprising Early Roles Of Orange Is The New Black Stars
9. Kate Mulgrew - Ryan's Hope
Kate Mulgrew, who plays Red on Orange Is The New Black, is also well known for her role as Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek: Voyager, but she’s been a popular actress long before even that.
Mulgrew’s earliest role was on an ABC soap opera called Ryan’s Hope in 1975 when she was just 20 years old. The show followed a large Irish family, the Ryans, and Mulgrew played Mary, the daughter and an aspiring journalist.
Even at the time, Mulgrew gained something of a following, with viewers expressing a particular interest in Mary and her career. After two years, however, she announced she would be leaving Ryan’s Hope. But instead of writing the character off, the producers simply recast her.
In fact, they recast her three times, with three different actors playing Mary within two years. The problem was that everyone loved Kate Mulgrew so much that nobody wanted another actress taking her place, so the network eventually admitted defeat and just killed the character off by having her get brutally murdered. That’s a soap opera for you.