# Kathryn Morris

Kathryn Morris (born January 28, 1969) is an American actress, best known for her lead role as Detective Lilly Rush in the CBS series Cold Case.

## Career

Morris's first role was a minor one in the 1991 tele-movie Long Road Home. Several other small parts followed, including a bit part as a psychiatric patient in the Oscar-winning As Good as It Gets. Her breakthrough role came as Lt. Annalisa "Stinger" Lindstrom in the television series Pensacola: Wings of Gold in 1997 for two seasons. Morris continued to work in films (notably ones directed by Rod Lurie) and had a brief stint on the Xena series in 1999 as Najara.
After seeing her in the film The Contender (which DreamWorks distributed), Steven Spielberg cast her in two successive films. Her scenes as a rock star in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which required Morris to take intensive singing and guitar lessons were cut from the film by the director, which was particularly agonizing for her. In Minority Report, she portrayed the tormented wife of Tom Cruise's character.
In 2003, Morris won the lead role of detective Lilly Rush in the CBS dramatic series Cold Case. She also appeared in the 2004 films Mindhunters and Paycheck, opposite Ben Affleck, and more recently as the journalist wife of Josh Hartnett in Lurie's drama Resurrecting the Champ (2007). Morris appeared in the film Cougars, Inc. which was distributed in 2011. In 2012, Morris appeared in the Hallmark Channel movie The Sweeter Side of Life, a romantic comedy.

## Personal life

Morris was born in 1969 in Cincinnati, Ohio. She grew up Christian in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, with her parents, Stanley, a Bible scholar, and Joyce, an insurance agent, and five siblings before moving away. From age 6 to 17, Morris and her family traveled the southern 'Bible Belt' as a gospel group called 'The Morris Code'. The group was mainly made up of Morris's father and three (out of five) of her siblings.
She attended two colleges in the Philadelphia area, Northeastern Christian Junior College and Temple University. After studying theatre in high school, she was involved in a hit-and-run collision while on her way to her first acting gig, a Japanese music video based on the musical Grease. She still made it to the gig and that's when she knew she was going to be an actress.
Morris was in a relationship with actor Johnny Messner. On April 8, 2013, Morris announced they were expecting twins. She gave birth to twin boys, who were diagnosed with autism when they were three years old. In October 2021, Morris launched The Savants: an initiative to "revolutionize how the world lives on and off the spectrum".

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1991 | Cool as Ice | Jen | |
| 1995 | Sleepstalker | Megan | Direct-to-video |
| 1996 | Paper Dragons | Kate | |
| 1996 | The Prince | Emily | |
| 1997 | As Good as It Gets | Psychiatric Patient | |
| 1998 | The Prophecy II | Anxious Mother | Direct-to-video |
| 1999 | Screenplay | Fanny | |
| 1999 | Deterrence | Lizzie Woods | |
| 2000 | The Contender | Paige Willomina | |
| 2001 | A.I. Artificial Intelligence | Teenage Honey | |
| 2001 | The Last Castle | DOD Investigator | Scenes deleted |
| 2002 | Role of a Lifetime | Chelsea Cellini | |
| 2002 | Minority Report | Lara Anderton | |
| 2002 | Hostage | Linda Delacroix | Segment for the BMW short film series The Hire |
| 2003 | Paycheck | Rita Dunne | |
| 2004 | Mindhunters | Sara Moore | |
| 2007 | Resurrecting the Champ | Joyce Kernan | |
| 2008 | Assassination of a High School President | Nurse Platt | |
| 2011 | Cougars, Inc. | Alison | |
| 2011 | Moneyball | Billy Beane's Wife | Scenes deleted |
| 2012 | Sunday's Mother | Gillian | Short film |
| 2013 | The Coin | Rachael | Short film |
| 2015 | The Perfect Guy | Karen | |
| 2015 | Bone Tomahawk | Lorna Hunt | |
| 2017 | You Get Me | Mrs. Hewitt | |
| 2019 | The Dirt | Deana Richards | |
| 2023 | Hayseed | Joyce Metts | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1991 | Long Road Home | Billy Jo Robertson | TV movie |
| 1994 | Rise and Walk: The Dennis Byrd Story | Angela | TV movie |
| 1994 | Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All | Zundro (Sandra) | TV movie |
| 1994 | Sweet Justice | Remy | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 1994 | A Friend to Die For | Monica Whitley | TV movie |
| 1995 | W.E.I.R.D. World | Lucy | TV movie |
| 1995 | Family Values | Borgyork Grumm | TV movie |
| 1996 | Murder, She Wrote | Doreen the Waitress | Episode: "What You Don't Know Can Kill You" |
| 1996 | L.A. Firefighters | Helen Regan | 3 episodes |
| 1996 | Silk Stalkings | Judith Millay | Episode: "Compulsion" |
| 1996 | Relativity | Sylvie | Episode: "Pilot" |
| 1996 | Ink | Woman | Episode: "Above the Fold" |
| 1997 | Poltergeist: The Legacy | Laura Davis | Episode: "Silent Partner" |
| 1997–1998 | Pensacola: Wings of Gold | Stinger | Main role (season 1), 22 episodes |
| 1998 | Inferno | Ryan Ribbet | TV movie |
| 1998–1999 | Xena: Warrior Princess | Najara | Episodes: "Crusader", "The Convert" |
| 1999 | The Magnificent Seven | Charlotte Richmond | Episodes: "Wagon Train: Part 1", "Wagon Train: Part 2" |
| 1999 | Inherit the Wind | Rachel Brown | TV movie |
| 1999 | Providence | Molly | Episode: "The Third Thing" |
| 2000 | Hell Swarm | Allie | TV movie |
| 2000 | Murder, She Wrote: A Story to Die For | Patricia Williams | TV movie |
| 2001 | And Never Let Her Go | Anne Marie Fahey | TV movie |
| 2001 | The Mind of the Married Man | Sandy | 4 episodes |
| 2003–2010 | Cold Case | Lilly Rush | Lead role, 156 episodes |
| 2013 | The Sweeter Side of Life | Desiree Harper | TV movie |
| 2016 | Colony | Charlotte Burgess | 3 episodes |
| 2018 | Reverie | Monica Shaw | Series regular; 10 episodes |