Kate Collins

Kate Collins is an American actress born on May 6, 1959, in Boston, Massachusetts, and raised in Washington, D.C. The eldest child of astronaut Michael Collins — who piloted the Command Module during the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 — and Patricia Collins née Finnegan, she attended National Cathedral School before pursuing theater studies at Northwestern University, where she earned her degree in 1981.

Following her graduation, Collins built her early career through regional theater work and off-Broadway productions, including The Danube, Blood Moon, and Clarissa. Her Broadway debut came in 1985 with the play Doubles, and it was during that production's run that she was cast in the role that would define much of her career.

Collins is best known for portraying Natalie Marlowe on the ABC daytime drama All My Children, a role she originated in 1985 and held on a regular basis through 1992. She departed the show that year, with the role subsequently recast by Melody Anderson; the character was written out and killed off on June 22, 1993. Collins returned to the series in 1997, 1998, and 2001 to reprise Natalie in spirit-based story arcs. Separately, she also took on the role of Natalie's sister Janet Green, a character described as mentally ill, appearing in that capacity from 1991 to 1992, again from 2005 to 2007, and in additional episodes in 2010 and 2011.

Beyond All My Children, Collins accumulated a range of television credits, guest-starring on the daytime dramas One Life to Live, Guiding Light, Search for Tomorrow, and Another World, as well as the primetime series L.A. Law. In 1989, she co-hosted Good Morning America, filling in for regular host Joan Lunden. Her stage work continued as well, and in 1990 she starred in Quiet on the Set, a theatrical play that spoofed the soap opera genre.

In October 1992, Collins married Charles Newell, the artistic director of the Court Theatre in Chicago. The couple have two sons and reside in Hyde Park, Chicago.