Sherry Stringfield races down the fake hospital corridor shouting out orders and looking very much the part of the cool headed medical resident she plays on ER In real life, however, Stringfield is a cut-up with an infectious laugh and a bubbly personality that charms just about everyone. To prepare for this latest role, Stringfield had to spend time in a real E.R. which she found fascinating, but certainly not her cup of tea."My character is not a surgeon, thank God," she remarks with a chuckle. "I would fall apart if I had to sit and watch someone being cut open to prepare for the role.

All Stringfield, who plays Dr. Susan Lewis, had to do was learn to make fake sutures, which suited her just fine, and remember her lines, of course, which she says is a breeze. "The lines are the last thing I have to worry about," says Stringfield, who was a straight-A student in high school back in Spring, Texas."You have to be focused. When we film those scenes, we go through several rooms at once, without the camera stopping. You can't mess up. If you do, everyone wants to kill you."

If she looks familiar, it's because the incredibly-talented Stringfield, at only 27, has had a charmed career as an actress. After graduating from the Acting Conservatory of the State University of New York at Purchase in 1989, one of the top drama colleges in the U.S., Stringfield went to New York City. Within days, a mind-boggling 30 agents asked her to sign with them. Within a week, she had signed a three-year contract to appear on "The Guiding Light" (she played nasty Blake Thorpe, who character eventually ran away with her mother's boyfriend). Soon after that, Stringfield auditioned for NYPD Blue and won the part of Laura Kelly, former wife of Det. John Kelly (David Caruso).

"I had a good role," she explains, "but there's only so much you can do with an attorney on a show that's about New York policemen." Among the "so much" that she did on Blue was to take off her clothes a time or two. "On ER," she jokes, "only the pati ents have to take off their clothes. I think I'm pretty safe."

Though her professional life has done nothing but thrive, it's taken a toll on her personal life. For nearly three years, she carried on a long-distance romance with a British businessman na med Paul Goldstein, whom she met at a white sale. They burned up the phone lines until the incredible 5,000 mile distance between them burned out their passion. She sought solace, however, in the arms of co-star Noah Wyle, so she's enjoying a little roman ce much closer to home. "I love going to the set every day," Stringfield said, just before the show went on hiatus, "because Noah will be there waiting."