I wrote my book, "Taken To The Stage: The Education of an Actress" in response to the questions I've had all my career: How did you get where you are? Wasn't it hard? When did you know you wanted to be an actress? How do you remember all those lines?
To make a long story short:

The Childhood Dream:

"The Baltimore Catechism was responsible for my acting career.  The training in memorization alone equipped me. After conquering the catechism, I never had trouble 'remembering all those lines,' a feat apparently so daunting to the numbers of people who ask me about it that it seems to be keeping a sizable portion of them out of the acting profession. But the catechism's most forceful push to the stage came from its unmistakable depiction of life as a dangerous trap. Living was so obviously full of pitfalls by which even the most fervent soul stumbled and slid down sin's slippery slope to hell that I concluded heaven could  only be won by avoiding real life as much as possible. The stage was a haven, a place where I could fake life without incurring consequences. In other words, The Baltimore Catechism made an acting career seem spiritually safe.

I had a lot to learn about show business."
Taken to the Stage; The Education of an Actress, Chapter 3

The Mid-Life Crisis:

"One night (my husband) and I were watching Ingmar Bergman's Fanny and Alexander on cable because, like most new parents, we relied heavily on home entertainment. Those were the years that made video stores into franchise giants.

The movie begins with a lttle company of actors rehearsing Hamlet. The elderly paterfamilias is rehearsing his part as Hamlet's ghost when he suddenly keels over. His actress-wife runs to take him in her arms as the company gathers anxiously above. The old man opens his eyes and asks, "What happened?"

You collapsed, they tell him.

He looks puzzled. "What was I doing?"

"You were acting," says his wife, as if this were the most reassuring answer in the world.

The man does not look reassured.

"Why was I acting?" he says. Then he dies.

My blood froze. I recognized the question as one I'd been asking for some time, subliminally, not wanting to grant it conscious attention. Now I knew I'd have to; it looked like a lousy deathbed question.  The actor in the movie clearly conveyed that, by eternal light, acting seemed a foolish and redundant task on which to have lavished a lifetime. Of course, Bergman's actor was acting.

Bergman redeems actors in the movie, several times over, by celebrating their fearless generosity of spirit in contrast to a punitive bishop's joyless repression. But, why was I acting? I couldn't avoid the question any longer. I didn't want to ask it with eternity staring me in the face. I had a child to teach. To do that well, I'd need an answer."
Ibid, Chapter 34

What I Learned on my Vocation

"To this day I don't think I understand the Word Game and fear I never played it well. Or maybe it's just hellaciously difficult for everyone? What I knew about it was this: it began with both partners, eyes closed, seated in chairs, doing a quick relaxation exercise.  One of us counted to three, then opened our eyes and whomever had been designated to begin made some spontaneous verbal observation of the other. The other responded in kind, briefly and directly, to the partner's look and sound.  This began a free-associative exchange of verbal impulses based on mutual scrutiny.  That was the idea; but since staying focused on one's partner and verbally brief was difficult for most of us, the Word Game rarely flowed.  It jolted, sputtered, and stalled, punctuated by screams of frustration and calm interventions in class by Curt. Swearing and 'discussion' were taboo. Because much of our daily language either masked our spontaneous feelings or vented them with curses, we found these exclusions stifling. Our ability to make honest, direct, succinct emotional utterances had withered.  Curt's coaching reminded us to stay focused outward, so as not to drown in self-consciousness. The universality of our impediments was humbling; it seemed all of us were angry and denied it. We preferred to smile and conceal - the affable actors!  We weren't angry! We never had nasty thoughts! Only when we admitted we did, and expressed them - all the way to wishes to annihilate everyone else, to which they usually led - were we free from the most stubborn obstacle to good work

Another humbling universal epiphany was that most student's objectives failed because we reduced them to unspecific urges to 'win'. Curt insisted on details: what did we wish to win? What desperate lack would be filled if we did beat the other guy, annihilate everyone else? When we searched our pasts for the answers, constructing objectives and activities based on private details, our work became mysterious and fascinating. We got beyond annihilation.  We became focused, not scattered. We were able to get what we wanted.  We weren't frustrated, powerless infants.  Great Acting, I saw, happened when actors were secure enough in their objectives to observe everyone and everything around them.  Great Acting was not an impossible, distant Ideal; it was a process that started simply and gathered strength as it flowed."
Ibid (well, it's my only book yet!) Chapter 25

click images for full size

"Dharma & Greg" (1997) TV Series L-R: Mitchell Ryan, Shay D'Lyn, Joel Murray, Alan Rachins, Susan Sullivan, Thomas Gibson, Jenna Elfman, Mimi Kennedy, Nunzio, Stinky

Abby Pregnant

"Homefront" (1991) TV Series SIGN THE PETITION TO BRING HOMEFRONT TO DVD!!!

Mimi as Ruth Sloan. 1995

"Savannah" (1996) TV Series Mimi as Eleanor Alexander Burton on Aaron Spelling's "Savannah"

"The Big Show" [TV-Series: 1980]

"Just Friends" [TV-Series: 1979]

"3 Girls 3" [TV-Series: 1979]

"The Two of Us" [TV-Series: 1981-1982] With the late Peter Cook.

With the late Dana Hill.

Oliver Clark, Peter Cook, Dana Hill, Mimi K