Thompson was born on May 31, 1961, in Rochester, Minnesota,[1] one of five children of Clifford and Barbara Barry Thompson, a musician.[2] She has two sisters, Coleen Goodrich and Shannon Katona, and two brothers, Andrew and Barry.[3]
When she was 20 years old and dancing professionally with American Ballet Theatre's Studio Company, then known as ABT II, the time came to decide if she would move to the main company.[4]Mikhail Baryshnikov, who was the artistic director at the time, told her, "You're a lovely dancer, but you're too stocky."[4][5] In her words, that was "my epiphany when I decided to stop dancing and not be a ballet dancer. It was a wonderful moment because I could've been banging my head against the wall for another 10 years."[6] She changed her focus to acting.[4]
Thompson at the 2008 Collectormania 13 Convention in Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
Thompson made her home-media screen debut in 1982 as Cecily "Sissy" Loper in the interactive live-action video game MysteryDisc: Murder, Anyone? and her movie debut in 1983, with Jaws 3-D. She recalled the film as "the very first movie I ever got, but I lied and said I had done a couple of other movies, so when I showed up, I really knew absolutely nothing. Also, I had said that I knew how to water ski. And I did not. So I had, like, five days to learn really, really complicated water-skiing things, because I had to fit into the Sea World water-skiing show. I don't even know how to swim!"[7] She followed this with All the Right Moves (1983), Red Dawn (1984), and The Wild Life (1984).[8]
Thompson's most famous role is that of Lorraine Baines McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy, with the first film released in 1985.[9][10] Thompson's character is the mother of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), whom Marty meets when she is a 1950s teenager after he travels back in time. He has to avoid letting Lorraine fall in love with him instead of with his future father, George (Crispin Glover), leading to awkward scenes in which Lorraine is attracted to Marty.
In 1986, Thompson starred in SpaceCamp and Howard the Duck. For the latter film, she sang several songs on the soundtrack in character, as musician Beverly Switzler, who was the lead vocalist for a band called Cherry Bomb. The recordings appeared on the soundtrack album and on singles. Rounding out film appearances in the late 1980s, Thompson starred in Some Kind of Wonderful, Casual Sex?, and The Wizard of Loneliness. She also had a prominent role in the 1989 TV film Nightbreaker, for which she was nominated for a CableACE Award. In the early 1990s, Thompson starred as the mother of the eponymous character in Dennis the Menace (1993), the villainess in The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), and a snooty ballet instructor in The Little Rascals (1994). She also appeared in several TV films throughout the 1990s, including The Substitute Wife (1994) and The Right To Remain Silent (1996).
Thompson found moderate critical and popular success as the star of the NBCsitcomCaroline in the City from 1995 to 1999. In 1996, Thompson received a People's Choice Award for Favorite Female Performer in a New TV Series, while her show won for Favorite New TV Comedy Series.[11] Thompson also starred in A Will of their Own, a 1998 American television mini-series directed by Karen Arthur. The film follows six generations of females within one family, and their struggle for power and independence in America. The film debuted on October 18, 1998, on the NBC network to strong critical reviews.
After a break from acting, Thompson went on to star in several Broadway plays. She later appeared in a TV series called For the People, which only lasted one season. She then starred in a TV film, Stealing Christmas (2003), starring Tony Danza and Betty White. Thompson also appeared in several episodes of the dramedy series Ed and in a guest role for one episode in 2004 on NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; she played a woman whose embryos were stolen.
In 2005, Thompson began a series of made-for-TV films for the Hallmark Channel, in which she plays Jane Doe, an ex-secret agent turned housewife, who helps the government solve mysteries. Thompson directed two films from the Jane Doe series – Jane Doe: The Harder They Fall and Jane Doe: Eye of the Beholder.
Thompson was a featured singer on Celebrity Duets and the second contestant eliminated in 2006. In April 2007, she starred in another television film, A Life Interrupted, which premiered on Lifetime television.[12]
From 2011 to 2017, Thompson starred in the ABC Family series Switched at Birth, about a family realizing their 16-year-old daughter is not biologically theirs and was switched with another baby at the hospital.
On April 27, 2017, Thompson was cast in the film Little Women, the seventh adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel of the same name, written and directed by first-time Director Clare Niederpruem. Thompson portrayed Marmee March, the mother who helps her daughters navigate the struggles and heartbreaks of adolescence and adulthood. The film was released on September 28, 2018, to coincide with the book's 150th-anniversary publishing date.[18]
She directed episode 5 season 2 of the Syfy series Resident Alien, first aired in February 2022.
She directed episodes 3 and 4 as well as having a cameo role in episode 5 of season 2 of in the Paramount+ series Star Trek: Picard, which aired in March 2022.
Thompson and Deutch have two daughters, both actresses: Madelyn Deutch (born 1991) and Zoey Deutch (born 1994), with whom she sang on stage in the Bye Bye Birdie production for the 16th annual Alzheimer's Association "A Night at Sardi's" in March 2008.[19]
Buddy Ebsen, also known as Frank "Buddy" Ebsen, was an American actor and dancer, whose career spanned seven decades. One of his most famous roles was as Jed Clampett in the CBS television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies (1962–1971); afterwards he starred as the title character in the television detective drama Barnaby Jones (1973–1980).
Jennifer Eve Garth is an American actress. She is known for starring as Kelly Taylor throughout the Beverly Hills, 90210 franchise and Val Tyler on the sitcom What I Like About You (2002–06). In 2012, she starred in her own reality show, Jennie Garth: A Little Bit Country on CMT. Her memoir titled Deep Thoughts From a Hollywood Blonde was published by New American Library on April 1, 2014.
Susan Hampshire, Lady Kulukundis, is an English actress known for her many television and film roles. A three-time Emmy Award winner, she won for The Forsyte Saga in 1970, The First Churchills in 1969, and for Vanity Fair in 1973. Her other television credits include The Pallisers (1974), The Grand (1997–98) and Monarch of the Glen (2000–2005).
Mikhail Nikolayevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet Latvian-born Russian-American dancer, choreographer, and actor. He was the preeminent male classical dancer of the 1970s and 1980s. He subsequently became a noted dance director.
Kim Delaney is an American actress known for her starring role as Detective Diane Russell on the ABC drama television series NYPD Blue, for which she won an Emmy Award. Early in her career, she played the role of Jenny Gardner in the ABC daytime television drama All My Children. She later had leading roles in the short lived TV drama Philly, part of the first season of CSI: Miami, and the first six seasons of Army Wives. She also appeared in Tour of Duty, Season 2 and the first two episodes of Season 3, playing a writer during the Vietnam War named Alex Devlin.
Some Kind of Wonderful is a 1987 American teen romantic drama film directed by Howard Deutch and starring Eric Stoltz, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Lea Thompson. It is one of several successful teen dramas written by John Hughes in the 1980s.
Yvonne Joyce Craig was an American actress and ballerina, who was renowned for her role as Batgirl in the 1960s television series Batman. Other notable roles in her career include Dorothy Johnson in the 1963 movie It Happened at the World's Fair, Azalea Tatum in the 1964 movie Kissin' Cousins and as the green-skinned Orion Marta in the Star Trek episode "Whom Gods Destroy" (1969).
The Beverly Hillbillies is a 1993 American comedy film directed by Penelope Spheeris, written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, and starring Jim Varney, Diedrich Bader, Dabney Coleman, Erika Eleniak, Cloris Leachman, Rob Schneider, Lea Thompson and Lily Tomlin.
The Turning Point is a 1977 American drama film centered on the world of ballet in New York City, written by Arthur Laurents and directed by Herbert Ross. The film stars Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft, along with Leslie Browne, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Tom Skerritt. The film was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The script is a fictionalized version of the real-life Brown family and the friendship between ballerinas Isabel Mirrow Brown and Nora Kaye.
Natalia Romanovna Makarova is a Russian prima ballerina and choreographer. The History of Dance, published in 1981, notes that "her performances set standards of artistry and aristocracy of dance which mark her as the finest ballerina of her generation in the West."
Howard the Duck, known in Europe as Howard: A New Breed of Hero, is a 1986 American superhero comedy film directed by Willard Huyck and starring Lea Thompson, Jeffrey Jones, and Tim Robbins. Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, the film was produced by Gloria Katz and written by Huyck and Katz, with George Lucas as executive producer. The screenplay was originally intended to be an animated film, but the film adaptation became live-action because of a contractual obligation. Although several TV adaptations of Marvel characters had aired during the preceding 21 years, this was the first attempt at a theatrical release since the Captain America serial of 1944.
Beverly Switzler is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is mostly a companion and sometimes girlfriend to Howard the Duck.
Howard Deutch is an American film and television director who worked in collaboration with filmmaker John Hughes, directing two of Hughes's best-known screenplays, Pretty in Pink and Some Kind of Wonderful. Since 2011, he has primarily directed television productions, including multiple episodes of Getting On and True Blood.
Susan Scott "Scottie" Thompson is an American film, television, and stage actress. She is best known as Jeanne Benoit in NCIS.
Jane Doe is the name of a series of nine made-for-television mystery films released by the Hallmark Channel between 2005 and 2008, and later appearing regularly on the Hallmark Movie Channel. While on the Hallmark Channel, it was broadcast in rotation with the movie series McBride, Murder 101, and Mystery Woman, under the umbrella title Hallmark Channel Mystery Wheel. In the UK, these movies are aired on a rotation basis, in the afternoon drama slot on Channel 5.
Shannen Doherty is an American actress. She is known for her many roles of television and film, including as Jenny Wilder in Little House on the Prairie (1982–1983); Maggie Malene in Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985); Kris Witherspoon in Our House (1986–1988); Heather Duke in Heathers (1988); Brenda Walsh in Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990–94), 90210 (2008–2009) and again in BH90210 (2019); Prue Halliwell in Charmed (1998–2001); and Dobbs in Fortress (2021).
Zoey Francis Chaya Thompson Deutch is an American actress and producer. She is daughter of director Howard Deutch and actress-director Lea Thompson. She gained recognition for her roles in the film Everybody Wants Some!!, the Netflix comedy series The Politician, and the romantic comedy film Set It Up.
Ana Laguna is a Spanish-Swedish ballet dancer, court dancer and professor. She has danced throughout the world with such legends as Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov earning prizes for her performances from France, Italy, Monaco, Russia, Spain, Sweden and the United States.
Anna Katerina Baryshnikov is an American actress. She had her breakout role as Sandy in the 2016 film Manchester by the Sea and was a series regular in the CBS sitcom Superior Donuts' first season. From 2019 to 2021, she played Lavinia Norcross Dickinson on the Apple TV+ series Dickinson.
Madelyn Deutch is an American actress, musician and writer. She is known for writing, acting in a lead role, and composing the musical score for the feature film The Year of Spectacular Men.
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