When Catherine Bell had a three-line walk-on appearance in the first season of JAG, she assumed it would be her last. In the next scene she was a bloodied corpse. JAG also died a quick death, when NBC scuttled the drama after one season. But a year later, its executive producer, Donald Bellisario, resurrected the idea and sold it to CBS. Bell sent him a letter saying she was perfect for the role of Major Sarah MacKenzie, the gung ho Marine lawyer. Bellisario remembered her as a "good actress with a pretty laugh." Bell was hired and the series became a huge hit.

Bell was born in London, her parents divorced when she was two and she moved with her mother, an Iranian-born nurse, to Los Angeles. Her father died three years later in a car accident. At seven, Bell was recruited to appear in commercials. Though she enjoyed the experience, her real ambition was to become a doctor. She enrolled at UCLA as a premed student but in her sophomore year dropped out to become a model. At 19, she spent four months in Japan walking the runways, homesick and lonely.

Bell returned to Los Angeles determined to be an actress. She took acting classes, appeared in an American Express commercial for Mexican television and landed a job as Isabella Rossellini's nude body double in Death Becomes Her. Still frames from the film are Internet staples.

Bell's career soon received a boost from guest appearances on Friends, Dream On and Hercules. She landed a major role in Miramax' Men of War, co-starring Dolph Lundgren, appeared opposite Maureen O'Hara in the CBS movie Cab to Canada and co-starred in TBS' The TimeShifters, with Casper Van Dien.

Robert Crane caught up with Bell at her home in Los Angeles. He reports: "This woman never rests. When she's not filming, she rides motorcycles with her husband, snowboards, kickboxes, skis, races cars and paints. Bell, who speaks Farsi fluently, is young, talented, beautiful and possesses the same sort of boundless energy as her good friend, the effervescent Jenna Elfman."

Q 1

PLAYBOY: What are the privileges of rank?

Catherine Bell: Telling lower-ranking men what to do. I got promoted at the beginning of the season, before my co-star did. So I outranked him for about six episodes. It's fun. You have the power to say, "End of discussion. Dismissed." It's great! When we were on an aircraft carrier for a few days in the beginning of the season, some of the crew didn't recognize me and thought I was really a lieutenant colonel. These guys see me, see the insignia and go, "Ma'am!" and snap to attention! Our technical advisor told me to say, "Carry on" or "As you were," when they do that because otherwise these guys would remain totally frozen.

Q 2

PLAYBOY: Care to comment on the proposition that military justice is to justice what military music is to music?

Catherine Bell: It's pretty different. There isn't as much leeway in the military justice system. You do something wrong and you are in trouble. Even things that are common in regular society--you have an affair with the wrong person in the military, you're out.

Q 3

PLAYBOY: How do you recruit when you're looking for a few good men?

Catherine Bell: I'm a huge flirt and my husband, Adam, knows it. I've learned who to flirt with and who not to. I've found that even smiling at someone can get you into trouble. I smile, I'm friendly, I hug people, and most people--like the guys at work, who I spend most of my time with--understand. I can sit on one of the guys' laps and hang out and have a great time, and he knows it doesn't mean anything. But I've learned that not every guy knows that, so I'm pretty careful.

Q 4

PLAYBOY: Would you be good at taking orders?

Catherine Bell: I'd be better at giving orders. At work you're essentially taking orders. The director's telling you to do something. It's a little different though--you have more of a say in it. You can never do that with a superior officer. "You know, Admiral, I gotta tell ya, what's my motivation, sir?"

Q 5

PLAYBOY: You've modeled in Japan. What do Americans still not understand about the Japanese?

Catherine Bell: I've been to Europe and countries all over the world, and they're all a little different. But when I was in Japan, I thought I was on a different planet. They're much more serious. There's no holding hands or kissing in public. But at the same time, I've never been grabbed on the street so much. Someone grabbed my breast, someone grabbed my ass. I'm a kickboxer, and I've always been pretty tough and feisty. I would just turn around and slug these guys and knock them down, and they'd go running. It's a very different way of thinking over there. The first week that I was there, I was trying to be friendly and I turned to the guy next to me on the subway and said, "Hi, I'm Catherine. I'm from America." Oh, my God! He was so offended. You don't talk to strangers in public unless you're formally introduced. He gave me this horrible look and moved to the other side of the car.

I was eating with some Japanese people and was joking around with one man. I tapped his chopsticks because he was getting some food near mine. He threw down the chopsticks, walked out of the restaurant and didn't come back for 45 minutes. Apparently, crossing chopsticks is a symbol for death. I didn't know.