Bio
Kim Delaney is an American actress best known for her television roles as Jenny Gardner Nelson on the soap opera All My Children (1981-1984), and as Det. Diane Russell in NYPD Blue, from 1995-2003.
Delaney, an Irish-American, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Joan and Jack Delaney, a union official who was the former head of the United Auto Workers. She grew up in Roxborough and has four brothers, Ed, John, Keith and Patrick.
While she was still attending Hallahan Catholic Girls High School, she worked as a model for the agency Elite.
After her graduation she went to New York and was also employed there as a model. At the same time she studied acting with the renowned trainer Bill Esper.
Delaney first became well-known for her stint as the innocent teenager Jenny Gardner Nelson on the soap opera All My Children. Her leading man was character Greg Nelson, played by Laurence Lau; the pair formed a soapie "supercouple".
After her marriage to "Greg," Kim decided to leave the series, so Jenny later died in an explosion of a jet ski.
Delaney began acting in feature films after leaving All My Children. In 1986 she played a young nun in the military action movie The Delta Force (1986), starring Chuck Norris.
In 1988 she starred in The Drifter, in which she appeared nude for the only time in her career. In 1994, she acted in the film The Force with Yasmine Bleeth and Jason Gedrick.
Delaney has since had regular roles in the television series Tour of Duty (1989-1990), NYPD Blue, Philly (2001-2002) and CSI: Miami (2002). Delaney was Megan Donner in the latter, but her character left the show abruptly because her on-screen husband died on the job.
She was nominated three times for an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress on NYPD Blue, winning once.
In 2004, she starred in the NBC mini-series 10.5 and in it's 2006 sequel, 10.5: Apocalypse.
In 2005, she played a recurring role on the second season of the teen drama series The O.C. and in 2006 starred with Steven Weber in an episode of Nightmares and Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King entitled, "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band", about Rock and Roll Heaven.
Delaney has appeared twice on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, in early 2007. She guest starred on the episodes "Philadelphia" and "Florida", playiing the role of Captain Julia Millfield, the captain of a police precinct in New Jersey.
She currently plays the character Claudia Joy Holden on the Lifetime series Army Wives, since 2007.
Delaney has been married twice: to actor Charles Grant from 1984-1988, and to actor Joseph Cortese from 1989-1994. She gave birth to a son, Jack Philip Cortese, in 1990.