Ally McBeal (character)
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| Ally McBeal | |
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| Ally McBeal character | |
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| Portrayed by | Calista Flockhart |
| Information | |
| Occupation | Litigator, Administrative Partner: Cage, Fish & McBeal |
Allison Marie "Ally" McBeal is the central fictional character in the Fox Television show Ally McBeal played by Calista Flockhart.
Ally is a Boston-based lawyer. She is shown as a woman who believes in love and is continually looking for her soul mate. She often hears songs in her head and experiences hallucinations, mostly of a dancing baby, due to her biological clock ticking and of sexual endeavors with various men.
[edit] Biography
Ally is the daughter of George McBeal (played by James Naughton) and Jeannie McBeal (played by Jill Clayburgh). She claims to have at least one sister and one brother although neither are ever seen (not even in the occasional flashbacks). She used to have a sister who died at the age of five.
Ally attended Harvard Law School with Billy Thomas (played by Gil Bellows), with whom she had had a relationship since they were eight years old. Billy, however, left Harvard to go to University of Michigan Law School, thereby breaking Ally's heart. The next thing we know about Ally is that she lives with district attorney Renee Radick, and she is employed in a Boston law firm.
Ally quit the law firm because her boss harassed her and was then recruited by old classmate Richard Fish to join his law firm, Cage & Fish. To her own surprise she found out that Billy, now married to fellow lawyer Georgia, is working at Cage & Fish. She falls in love with him again, to the horror of Georgia. However, Ally and Georgia become friends and Ally learns to work side by side with Billy.
Throughout the series Ally dated lots of men. Because Billy remained the love of her life, no relationship ever got serious until she met Dr. Greg Butters (played by Jesse L. Martin). Greg and Ally got quite serious until the two were spotted kissing by Billy. Billy felt so jealous that he imagined himself to be in love with Ally after which he declared his undying love for Ally. The two subsequently engaged in a short affair, which Ally finally broke off. Nonetheless, Greg broke off the relationship after finding out.
Ally started dating again, finally meeting a British lawyer named Brian Selig (played by Tim Dutton). The two started dating and ended up having a six-month relationship (untroubled by Billy, who had by now died of a brain tumor). When, after six months, Brian asked Ally to move in with him, Ally realised Brian was much too boring for her and then broke off the relationship.
Shortly after that, she fell in love with fellow lawyer Larry Paul. The two started a serious but rocky relationship. Although initially troubled by the fact that Larry had an ex-wife with whom he was still close and an ex-girlfriend (played by Famke Janssen) who was also the mother of his child, it was soon evident that Larry was her soulmate. The relationship ended abruptly with Ally breaking up with Larry after she caught him eating lunch with his ex-wife. After the break-up Larry decided to go back to Detroit to be with his son leaving Ally behind with a note. (Initially Ally was supposed to get married to Larry at the end of season 4 but when actor Robert Downey Jr. was arrested on drug-related charges and sent to jail, the network fired Downey, thereby cancelling the marriage storyline).
While in college, Ally, in need of money, donated an egg for research, only to find out years later that it wound up getting adopted. One day a little girl (played by Hayden Panettiere) shows up on her doorstep, claiming to be her daughter, prompting Ally to faint. She gets to know her daughter over the course of several episodes. Her daughter Madison is harassed by schoolmates and mourns her anonymous father, so Ally decides to move to her daughter's home city New York.
