Margaret Colin

Early life

Margaret Colin was born in Brooklyn, New York City, and was raised in Baldwin, New York, on Long Island. She is of Irish descent and was raised in a Roman Catholic family; her father was a New York City police officer. She graduated from Baldwin Senior High School in 1976.

Career

After graduating from Hofstra University, Colin began her acting career in the soap opera The Edge of Night, playing an heiress and former terrorist. In seven months on that show, her character survived seven murder attempts and ended up marrying her stepbrother. She followed that role with a longer stint on As the World Turns, originating the role of Margo Montgomery, a character that endured nearly 30 years.

She has appeared on a number of primetime television shows, starting with Foley Square, Leg Work, and several early episodes of Chicago Hope. She played Lisa Wiseman on the 1999 series Now and Again, with Eric Close and Dennis Haysbert. In 2003, she appeared in an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit titled "Tortured", playing a mother/bakery owner who was later arrested for abetting a murder.

From 2007 to 2012, Colin played the recurring role of Eleanor Waldorf, mother of Blair Waldorf, on the teen drama television series Gossip Girl. In the pilot episode, Eleanor was played by One Life to Live actress Florencia Lozano.

Colin has also been in a number of films, the most well-known of which are probably Something Wild (1986), Three Men and a Baby (1987), The Butcher's Wife (1991), Independence Day (1996), Unfaithful (2002), and First Daughter (2004). She also appeared in the play Jackie: An American Life, in which she played Jacqueline Kennedy.

During her 2003 performance of the English play A Day in the Death of Joe Egg on Broadway, Colin smoked her way through the second half of the show and dedicated the performance to Mayor Michael Bloomberg in defiance of the state's smoking ban. After the play finished its run, she gave up smoking.

Personal life

Colin met actor Justin Deas when he played her love interest, Tom Hughes, on As the World Turns. They were married in January 1988. The couple have two sons, Sam and Joe, and Colin is stepmother of her husband's daughter from his first marriage. The family moved to Upper Montclair, New Jersey in the late 1990s.

She is a pro-life activist and was formerly the honorary co-chair of Feminists for Life, an organization opposed to abortion. Colin is now the honorary board member of the group, Feminists for Nonviolent Choices, which is not affiliated with Feminists for Life. https://zenit.org/articles/pro-life-celebrities-are-speaking-up/