Biographie
Caitlin was born on August 16, 1953 in Whitefish Bay, Milwakee, Wisconsin. Growing up there, she and her two older sisters turned their garage into a theatre. She made her formal stage debut at eight, when her mother, a drama teacher, cast Caitlin as Peter Pan in a Cumberland School summer production. Caitlin admits there may have been some bias at that audition, but none was evident when she joined the North Shore Children's Theatre, a local professional touring company, at age 11. She played clarinet in the band at Whitefish Bay High School, where she was also a member of the choir. At 17, she won a scholarship at the prestigious Julliard School of Drama in New York City.
In her four years at Julliard, Caitlin studied under Oscar-winning actor John Houseman, and performed such classic roles as Masha in "The Seagull," Doreen in "Tartuffe," Juliet in "Romeo and Juliet," Mary Boyle in "Juno and the Paycock," Maryanne in "Measure for Measure," and Esmeralda in "Camino Reef."
After graduation, Caitlin made her off-Broadway debut as Loretta in "Hot House" at the Chelsea Theatre. She remained at Chelsea to play Finkel in "Yentl" and to understudy Tovah Feldshuh in the title role. She moved to Broadway to understudy the role of Elizabeth in "A Matter of Gravity," starring Katherine Hepburn, then to Seattle to appear as Celia in "As You Like It," Gwendolyn in "Travesties," and Eylie in "Ladyhouse Blues."
Caitlin next appeared in "Gogol" at the New York Shakespeare Festival, and played the double roles of Belle and Mrs. Cratchit in "A Christmas Carol" at Playwrights Horizon. On closing night she made a trial move to Los Angeles and in five weeks was cast as Anna Marie Hollyhock in an ABC comedy series, "Apple Pie." The series introduced Caitlin to tap dancing, an interest she still pursues.
Caitlin remained in Los Angeles to play fourteen-year old Bianca in "White Marriage" at the Odyssey Theatre, which earned her a Drama-Logue award for best actress. She also appeared in two television movies, "Mark Twain's America" and "The Seeding of Sarah Burns."
She returned to the East to star as Ersilla Drei in Pirandello's "Naked" at the Syracuse Stage, and as Amy in the horror feature "He Knows You're Alone." Performances in "Ape Watch" at the Mark Taper Forum Lab, "The Brides" at the Lenox Art Centre, and off-Broadway as Olive Lashbrook in the 40s classic "The Voice of the Turtle" and "Scenes and Revelations" soon followed. She also appeared as waitress Lurleen Hamett in ABC's "One Life to Live."
One of Caitlin's early roles was in He Knows You're Alone (1980) (best known as Tom Hanks's film debut). She also played 1930's Hollywood actress Dolores Farrar in Woody Allen's film A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) (1982). Allen would cast her in two more films: Zelig (1983) (1983) and The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985). She also acted in Three O'Clock High (1987) (1987), which was executive-produced by Steven Spielberg.
She was best known to TV viewers for her performances as Sarah Stickney White in Tales of the Gold Monkey (1982) (1982) and as the first Snow White in The Charmings (1987) (1987). As Sarah, she was an American secret agent who poses as a singer to cover her activities as an American agent operating in the South Pacific. And as Snow White, she played the fairy tale character surviving in the modern world to perfection.
She has also created a company called "Caitlin" which markets perfumes that she personally created.
Caitlin continues to act, her recent feature film was Brooklyn Lobster (2005), where she played Aunt Fran.
She lives on a horse farm outside New York City, with her many pets, including dogs and horses.
