Catherine Ness The Untouchables

Catherine Ness is the wife of Treasury Special Agent Eliot Ness in The Untouchables (1987), played by Patricia Clarkson in her feature film debut.[^w1]

In the film

Catherine first appears at the family's modest Chicago house, kissing Ness goodbye on the porch as he leaves for his first Chicago press conference.^b3 She is pregnant during the early acts of the film and the couple already have a young daughter at home.[^nc1]

After Capone's organization marks Ness personally — a stranger admires the Ness daughter's birthday on the street outside the house, and a threatening note is left in the family's kitchen — Ness rushes home and evacuates Catherine and the children to a guarded train out of Chicago.^{b14 b15}

From hiding, Catherine gives birth to a son, John James; the news reaches Ness at the federal building moments before Frank Nitti murders Oscar Wallace and the squad's captive accountant in the service elevator.^b19 A clerk congratulates Ness — "What was it, a boy or a girl?" "Boy. John James" — and relays Catherine's plan to repaint the house when she gets out.[^nc2]

Catherine does not appear again on screen. Her phone calls and the news of the baby function in the back half of the film as the offstage reminder of the ordinary life Ness has put on hold.[^nc3]

Casting and performance

The Untouchables was Clarkson's first feature film role, released the same year she graduated from the Yale School of Drama.[^w1] She is billed in the supporting cast and appears in a small number of domestic scenes opposite Kevin Costner.