Ask American Profile 12/13/2009

Tricia Helfer, George "Gabby" Hayes, The Last of the Mohicans, Alex O'Loughlin

Q What can you tell me about the beautiful actress who played Number Six on the TV series Battlestar Galactica?
—Randall Michaels, Bennington, Vt.

Tricia Helfer was a model for 10 years before turning to acting at age 29. "There's definitely that 'model-turned-actor stigma' that you have to overcome when you make the changeover, but thankfully I was able to make that transition," says Helfer, 35, who grew up on a farm in Alberta, Canada. Watch for her in the upcoming horror film Open House and as a guest on the debut of the TV series Human Target in January. In her spare time, she devotes herself to animal causes and rides motorbikes with her husband.


Q  George "Gabby" Hayes was always my favorite sidekick in the Westerns I watched as a child, yet I have never read anything about his private life.
—Jim Bowerstock, Van Wert, Ohio

Hayes, born in Wellsville, N.Y., was probably the most famous sidekick in the Western movies of the 1930s and '40s. In real life, he was the opposite of the grizzled old codger that he usually portrayed alongside Hopalong Cassidy, Wild Bill Elliott, Randolph Scott, John Wayne and Roy Rogers, with whom he rode in more than 40 cowboy dramas. He and his wife had no children. Hayes died of cardiovascular disease in 1969 in Burbank, Calif., at the age of 83.


Q  Where did they film the Daniel Day-Lewis movie The Last of the Mohicans? I thought the events of the story took place in New York state.
—Robert Melcer, Stroudsburg, Pa.

The 1992 movie based on the famous James Fenimore Cooper novel, which revolves around events on the frontier of the British province of New York during the French and Indian War of the mid- 1700s, was filmed in North Carolina. Although you can see much of the movie's scenery today in various locations throughout the state, one memorable "outdoor" scene—behind a crashing waterfall—was shot on a soundstage.


Q  Alex O'Loughlin plays transplant surgeon Dr. Andy Yablonski on the TV series Three Rivers. Is he an organ donor in real life?
—Brad Cohn, Carpenteria, Calif.

A native of Canberra, Australia, O'Loughlin, 33, is indeed an organ donor. "When I was younger, in my late teens, it just seemed like the cool thing to do. And what I have learned actually on the show is there's a lot more to it than just checking a box and putting the sticker on your license," he says. He'd like to become a spokesman for organ donation in the same way he was for blood donation for the Red Cross when he played vampire Mick St. John on Moonlight.

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