Catherine Mary Stewart


Catherine Mary Stewart is a Canadian actress.

Early life

Stewart was born on 22 April 1959, in Edmonton, Alberta, the daughter of Mary and John Ralph Nursall. Her parents taught at the University of Alberta, her mother a physiology teaching assistant and her father a biology professor. Stewart attended Strathcona Composite High School.

Career

Stewart began her career as a dancer and moved to London, England, to study at age 18. There she landed a role in The Apple, a musical science fiction cult film. During the production of The Apple, the director Menahem Golan took issue with her original name Mary Nursall and insisted she change it, which she did using using her mother's maiden name.
After moving to Los Angeles she obtained a role on the soap opera Days of Our Lives, playing the original Kayla Brady from January 1982 to December 1983. In 1984, she starred in two science fiction feature films, The Last Starfighter as Maggie Gordon and Night of the Comet as Regina Belmont. She later played a leading role in the teen comedy Mischief.
In the mid-1980s, Stewart appeared in two miniseries: Hollywood Wives and Sins, where she played the younger version of Joan Collins's character. She made guest appearances on television series such as Knight Rider, Hotel, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and The Outer Limits. She starred in several made-for-TV movies such as Murder by the Book, Passion and Paradise, Perfect Harmony and Ordeal in the Arctic. In 1989, she appeared as Gwen Saunders in the comedy film Weekend at Bernie's.
Beginning in the mid-1990s, she scaled back her appearances whilst she was raising her family. As her children have grown, she has again been appearing in television and film roles, and has expressed an interest in directing.

Personal life

She is the sister of Alan Nursall, scientist and media personality who reports on science news for the Canadian TV series Daily Planet and the Discovery Channel. Another brother, John Nursall, is a freelance writer and TV/film documentary director and producer.
She was married to actor John Findlater in 1983 and divorced in 1985. She married Richard Allerton in 1992. She has a daughter and a son and lived in Brooklyn, New York, as of 2013.

Filmography

Film

Television