Childhood Crush List
The 80s and 90s had the sweetest and cutest actresses. I sometimes wonder where are they now?
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Christine Helen Lakin was born on January 25th, 1979 in Dallas, Texas. After moving several times as a child, her family finally settled in Atlanta, Georgia, where Christine started her acting career. There, she attended the Atlanta workshop players - a theater group which plays in schools in the Atlanta metro area. Her first audition was for a TV-commercial - "Got Milk?!", and after not getting that job, she didn't have to wait long for her next opportunity, which was the part as the young Rose in the civil-war flick The Rose and the Jackal (1990), which also starred Christopher Reeve. In 1991, she took her first step towards big fame and landed the role as the tomboyish Al on the Friday night hit Step by Step (1991).
During the sitcom's long run, Christine gracefully grew up, graduated from high school in 1997 and made various appearances on other television shows. When Step by Step (1991) was cancelled in 1998, Christine, while attending UCLA and majoring in film, looked for other film roles. She landed jobs in independent films such as Boltneck (2000) and Finding Kelly (2000). Whatever It Takes (2000) was Christine's first wide theatrical film release. Since then, she has had a slew of independent coming-of-age films along with guest appearances on such hit shows as Boston Public (2000), and Opposite Sex (2000). Still attending UCLA and handling a film career, Christine is managing to do what few child actors tend to do, which is continue.- Actress
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Staci Keanan was born Anastasia Sagorsky on June 6, 1975 in Devon, Pennsylvania. She began her career at age four with fashion-show assignments and magazine work. At age eight, she moved to New York City with her mother and sister and balanced a modeling career with a budding theater career, in addition to keeping a high scholastic record. She won several prestigious scholastic awards, including a City of New York essay contest and the National Language Arts Olympiad. As for her acting career, she branched from modeling into commercials, voiceovers and jingles, and then got roles in several miniseries and television specials. Her first starring role was as Nicole Bradford in the situation comedy My Two Dads (1987). She received both the Youth In Film Award and Sixteen Magazine's Top TV Newcomer Award for her work on the series. In 1989, Staci made it to the silver screen in the horror film Lisa (1990), and then starred in the situation comedy Step by Step (1991).- Actress
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Ami Dolenz was born on 8 January 1969 in Burbank, California, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Can't Buy Me Love (1987), Rescue Me (1992) and Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings (1993). She has been married to Jerry Trimble since 10 August 2002.- Actress
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Tiffani Amber Thiessen was born on January 23, 1974 in Long Beach, California to Robyn Ernest, a homemaker & Frank Thiessen, a park designer. She grew up in Long Beach with her parents and her brothers, professional cyclist Todd (born August 1, 1968) and Schyler (born May 10, 1977). When Tiffani was 8, her uncle, Roger Ernest, suggested that she try acting and modeling. Soon afterward, she appeared in her first TV commercial, for Peaches and Cream Barbie. From there she started competing in several beauty pageants and, in 1987, she won the Miss Junior America pageant.
She got her big break when she was cast as the popular cheerleader Kelly Kapowski on the NBC series Saved by the Bell (1989), which lasted for five years. But this was not at all the end of her career. Coinciding with the cancellation of the short-lived Saved by the Bell: The College Years (1993), she was cast as the bitchy, conniving vixen Valerie Malone on Aaron Spelling's long-running hit series Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990). Here, she played the constant enemy of Kelly Taylor, played by Jennie Garth, although in real life, the two are actually best friends. Tiffani also lived with co-star Brian Austin Green for several years. She stayed with the show until 1998 and then left to pursue her movie career. The result was two independent movies, followed by two comedies and then Hollywood Ending (2002), in which she starred alongside Woody Allen.
She met actor Richard Ruccolo while guest starring as Marti in the hit sitcom Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place (1998) where in 2001, the couple became engaged. During the fall of 2002, she co-starred with best friend Jennie's husband, Peter Facinelli, and Bill Bellamy on Fox's action/drama series, Fastlane (2002), where she starred as Billie Chambers, but the show was canceled after one season. In 2003, Tiffani broke off her engagement to Richard Ruccolo and in 2005, she married actor Brady Smith. The couple have two children, a daughter, Harper Smith (Harper Renn Smith) and a son, Holt Fisher Smith.- Actress
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Auburn haired Kerri Green was born in Fort Lee, New Jersey, USA on 14 January 1967. In 1984, Kerri decided to skip summer camp and attend some movie auditions in New York City instead. This led her to the attention of none other than Steven Spielberg, who cast her as Andy in Richard Donner's adventure movie The Goonies (1985), which was one of the biggest hits of 1985. Also that year, she played one of John Candy's three children in the movie Summer Rental (1985). However, she gave her most accomplished performance in David Seltzer's Lucas (1986) - Corey Haim was the title character, a bespectacled, intelligent and unpopular 14-year-old misfit, who befriends 16-year-old Maggie, played brilliantly by Kerri, who Lucas soon falls in love with. However, Maggie has fallen for handsome football hero Cappie (Charlie Sheen), which breaks Lucas' heart. A heartwarming, realistic and enjoyable teen movie, Lucas also featured Ally McBeal star Courtney Thorne-Smith and, making her film debut, Winona Ryder. Kerri was reunited with Charlie Sheen for 1987's road movie Three for the Road (1987), in which she played Robin, the rebellious daughter of a ruthless senator. Following the release of that movie, Kerri decided to quit acting and studied art at Vassar College. Audiences didn't see her again until the TV movie Blue Flame (1993). She received critical acclaim for her direction of the film Bellyfruit (1999). Her marriage in the 90s has led to her now being credited as "Kerri Lee Green" and she now only pops up now and then on television - most notably in an episode of "ER" as a mother of several children, who tearfully wants to terminate her latest pregnancy.- Actress
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Laura Mooney was born on 27 May 1976 in Westminster, California, USA. She is an actress, known for Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989) and Potato Head Kids (1986).- Angela Watson was born a farmer's daughter in a little town of 500 people, outside of Danville, Illinois. Her parents retired and moved to Southwest Florida when Angela was just ten years old. Her performing career had begun with tap dancing at the age of three, continuing into her pre-teens when she amassed over 200 trophies and 60 crowns competing in numerous beauty pageants. Angela quickly learned that even the best dancer had difficulty beating out a singer in the talent portion of those contests. Angela was determined to win First Place, thus her singing career was born. At age 13, she locked herself in her room, not appearing for days until she announced to her parents she would be singing Patsy Cline's "Walking After Midnight" in the upcoming pageant, and that she planned to win. And win she did! Her pageant success led to modeling in New York and Dallas, until she was discovered by a manager who advised her parents to take her to Los Angeles and give her a shot at television and film work. Her first national commercial was for McDonald's, followed by Doritos, IBM and GE. Within her first year in California, Angela was cast in a recurring role on ABC's "Davis Rules" with Jonathan Winters and Randy Quaid. The following year, Angela was handpicked to costar in the 90's TGIF sitcom "Step by Step" playing Suzanne Somers and Patrick Duffy's very vain and seemingly shallow, though with a good heart, teenage daughter "Karen Foster" for 7 seasons. The show has over 150 episodes currently streaming on Hulu. Even though a successful TV actress, Angela was far from an experienced Hollywood wild child, and unfortunately her innocence and naivete were taken advantage of by a so called "production partner" who promised to help her transition into an adult actor with longevity in the business. By the time her family and friends realized he was actually a con man who was brainwashing Angela, it was too late. Over the next 20 years, not only was Angela isolated from everyone she loved, but he also convinced her that she had to sue her parents for supposedly "stealing her money," when in fact, he was the one fleecing her acting earnings. Her relationship with the narcissistic abuser turned into a daily nightmare she couldn't escape from. Thankfully, Angela was able to secretly listen to some YouTube videos that she now knows was actually reprogramming her brain to choose to be happy despite her circumstances. After two years of doing so, she realized she had the courage and strength to break free. Angela says it was "by the Grace of God, and her mother's unceasing prayers for her return," that she is now joyfully reunited with her formerly estranged family and friends. This new chapter of her life has already kicked off with quite a bang, after accompanying her new husband to the optometrist, Michael Witherington, a songwriter at heart from Oklahoma. He asked Angela to record his catchy original song, "We Love Santa Claus," with producer Julian Sundby, and Angela was delighted to sing the fun toe-tapping holiday tune. Angela kicked off 2020 playing 8 different characters in a 6 week run of The Dining Room.
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Jamie Michelle Luner was born on Wednesday, May 12, 1971 to Stuart and Susan Luner in Palo Alto, California. She grew up with her older brother, David Luner, and her mom Susan in California. Before landing her roles on Just the Ten of Us (1987) as dizzy "Cindy Lubbock", Jamie began her career in front of the cameras at the tender age of three doing TV commercials. At 15 she won the L.A. Shakespeare Festival in the category of monologues. She was still working on Just the Ten of Us (1987), while attending Beverly Hills High School, from which she graduated in 1989. She took a break from acting, attended culinary school, and was a chef at French restaurant Drai's after Just the Ten of Us (1987) was canceled in 1991.
She returned to TV in Moment of Truth: Why My Daughter? (1993) in 1993 with a few small parts in shows such as Married... with Children (1987), Diagnosis Murder (1993). Then, she got her first break as Southern seductress "Peyton Richards" in Savannah (1996). After the prime-time soap was canceled, Jamie and her then-boyfriend Johnny Braz traveled around the US in an Airstream motor home before she landed the role of "Lexi" in Melrose Place (1992). After the Fox soap ended in 1999, so did her four-year-romance. Then after Ally Walker left, Jamie joined the cast of Profiler (1996) as "Rachel Burke".
Later she was in ABC's short-lived 10-8: Officers on Duty (2003). Then, in 2005, she had lead roles in Lifetime's, Blind Injustice (2005), Stranger in My Bed (2005) and, in 2006, The Suspect (2006), The Perfect Marriage (2006) and a guest spot on The War at Home (2005).
Jamie has also done theater work in Santa Monica in "Black & Bluestein", Other Space, Santa Monica and The Young Playwrites Festival in Los Angeles.- Actress
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Together with her younger sister, Crystal McKellar, she began acting at a young age in her mother's dance studio. In 1982 the family moved to Los Angeles and a few years later she appeared in her first commercial. A few guest appearances in The Twilight Zone (1985) was followed by her breakthrough in The Wonder Years (1988). She has had good grades in math and French. In her spare time she likes to go skiing, swimming and surfing.- Kelly LeBrock was born in New York and raised in London. She is the daughter of a French-Canadian father and an Irish mother. Kelly LeBrock began her career as a model beginning at the age of sixteen. She has appeared on hundreds of covers and magazines including a Christian Dior ad. She became one of Eileen Ford's most sought-after models. Her motion picture debut was in the movie The Woman in Red (1984) in which she played a model. She has appeared in many films including Weird Science (1985), Hard to Kill (1990), Wrongfully Accused (1998) and The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2001). She was married to actor Steven Seagal, with whom she has three children, Annaliza, Dominic and Arissa.
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Danielle Christine Fishel was born on May 5, 1981, in Mesa, Arizona. She began acting professionally at the age of ten, during which she made many TV guest appearances and commercials. She was originally a guest star on the show Boy Meets World (1993), but Danielle added a spark that the show needed and she became a regular cast member shortly afterward. She played Topanga Lawrence on the show, the girlfriend of Cory Matthews. The show brought Danielle much attention even landing her face on the cover of "Seventeen" magazine. She was voted as one of Teen People's magazine hottest stars under the age of 21. She graduated from high school in 1999.
In 2014, fourteen years after the conclusion of "Boy," she reprised her role as Topanga, now the wife of Cory Matthews, in the show Girl Meets World (2014).- Actress
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Melissa grew up in Sayville, New York. Her acting career started at the age of four, when she did a commercial for a bathtub toy called Splashy. Her mother, Paula Hart, has been her agent from the beginning. Melissa is the oldest of eight children, some from her mother's second marriage. Six sisters, Trisha Hart, Elizabeth Hart, Emily Hart, Alexandra Hart-Gilliams, Samantha Hart, and Mackenzie Lee Hart, who is the only sibling who never appeared on Melissa's TV series, Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996). Her brother is Brian Hart.
Melissa performed in two plays as the youngest member of New York's Circle Repertory Lab Company: "Beside Herself" in 1989 (starring Lois Smith and William Hurt) and "Imagining Brad" in 1990. She was also in the National Actors Theater production of "The Crucible" on Broadway with Martin Sheen (as understudy of three of the children in the play). Melissa cites Shirley Temple and Audrey Hepburn as early acting inspirations and still collects memorabilia of the former. For the past few years, she has been juggling acting and attending New York University. She's now living in Connecticut.- Actress
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Alicia Silverstone was born on October 4, 1976 in San Francisco, California, the youngest of three children. She is the daughter of Didi (Radford), a former flight attendant, and Monty Silverstone, a real estate investor. Her English-born father is from a Jewish family, while her Scottish-born mother converted to Judaism. Alicia's career began at the tender age of six, when her father took some photos of his young daughter, which eventually led to her getting several television commercials. After a guest spot on The Wonder Years (1988) as a literal "dream girl", she moved on to movies. She landed a role in The Crush (1993), a sort of Fatal Attraction (1987) for teenagers in which she portrayed a disturbed young girl obsessed with an older man. The nasty little role did not impress the critical establishment but it wowed its target audience: teenagers. In fact, the role won her the 1994 MTV Movie Award for "Best Villain" and "Breakthrough Performance". It is interesting to note that during the filming of the movie, Alicia became an emancipated minor in order to get around child labor laws which would have interfered with her working hours. She was a dedicated actress from early on.
The film also caught the attention of Aerosmith, who hired her to appear in a string of their music videos. The first of them, "Cryin'", was voted the #1 video of all time on MTV. Silverstone was definitely a hit with the MTV crowd, but larger commercial success still eluded her. That all changed when she landed the role of Cher in Amy Heckerling's Clueless (1995). Cher was the antithesis of Alicia's role in The Crush; this time around, she was a rich, naive yet endearing girl from Beverly Hills in search of love in the 1990s. The film was a huge box-office hit and wowed both audiences and critics alike and demonstrated Alicia's strength and bankability. She was hailed as the woman of the hour, and branded the spokeswoman for an emerging young generation. She signed a deal with Columbia TriStar worth $10 million and got the coveted role of Batgirl in the Batman franchise. Also, as part of the package, she received a three-year first-look deal for her own production company, First Kiss Productions. The first film released by First Kiss was Excess Baggage (1997).- Stacey Dash was born in the Bronx, New York. Stacy knew that she wanted to act, and from an early age began to act professionally. She made regular appearances on The Cosby Show (1984), The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990), and also St. Elsewhere (1982). At 21 she made her feature film debut in Enemy Territory (1987), which was quickly followed by Moving (1988), in which she played Richard Pryor's teenage daughter. Four years later she was in Mo' Money (1992), with Damon Wayans. In 1994 she starred with Mark Wahlberg in Renaissance Man (1994). In 1995 she did the provocative erotic thriller Illegal in Blue (1995) and later that year got her big break when was cast as Dionne in the hit comedy Clueless (1995). She went on to star in the UPN sitcom Clueless (1996) that was based on the movie, and which lasted for two years. During that time she completed Oliver Stone's Cold Around the Heart (1997) and also the independent film Personals (1999). After leaving "Clueless" in 1999, Stacey seems to be moving along nicely. She has recently appeared in The Painting (2001) and Paper Soldiers (2002).
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Lea Katherine Thompson was born May 31, 1961 in Rochester, Minnesota. She is the youngest of five children. Her parents are Barbara and Cliff Thompson. Since all her siblings were much older than her, Lea says it seemed like she had more than two parents. The family lived in the Starlight motel, all the kids sharing a room. Things began to look up for the family when Lea's father got a job in Minneapolis, where the family moved.
Lea's parents divorced when she was six, and her mother decided to maintain the family. This wasn't the easiest job, considering her mother was alcohol-addicted at the time. When she found the strength to quit drinking, she took a job playing the piano and singing in a bar to support Lea and her siblings. When Lea was seven, her mother remarried. Ever since Lea was little, she loved to dance -- ballet to be exact. She would practice three to four hours every day. Her first role was as a mouse in "The Nutcracker". After Lea turned fourteen, she had performed in more than 45 ballets on stages, such as The Minnesota Dance Theatre, The Pennsylvania Ballet Company, and The Ballet Repertory. She won scholarships to The American Ballet Theatre and The San Francisco Ballet. At age nineteen, she auditioned for Mikhail Baryshnikov, who later told her that she was "a beautiful dancer... but too stocky." Lea knew her dreams had been crushed. At that point, she decided to turn to acting. She began working as a waitress, also making 22 Burger King commercials and a few Twix commercials. She was perfect for these parts simply because she was the average girl-down-the-street, from the Midwest. Everyone who knows her can't believe she was and still is so completely different...trying to be independent and fight against the system. In 1982, Lea made some type of a computer game or interactive movie known as "Murder, Anyone."
Her first role was in the movie, Jaws 3-D (1983), as a water ski bunny, although she couldn't swim or ski, which she still can't! There, she met Dennis Quaid, who became her fiancée and acting coach. Her next role was in All the Right Moves (1983), where she acted opposite Tom Cruise. Director Michael Chapman was so disappointed with her performance, that he almost fired her. Between 1983 and 1984, Lea appeared in other "teen" movies, such as Red Dawn (1984), The Wild Life (1984), and Going Undercover (aka Going Undercover (1985)), and believes it was lucky that, in these movies, they were able to use anyone who could walk and talk! Lea's biggest known accomplishment, and her big break, came from the first Back to the Future (1985). It was the biggest hit of 1985, and Lea was suddenly the most wanted actress. She could have her pick of any role she wanted to take on. She chose Howard the Duck (1986). Although it was a George Lucas production, the critics turned the movie, and Lea, down. Afterwards, director Howard Deutch offered Lea a part in his movie, Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), but she refused. After he urged her to do it, she reconsidered. She won the Young Artist Award for best young actress. During filming, Howard and Lea fell in love, and she called it off with Dennis. She then went on to film The Wizard of Loneliness (1988), which was her first movie as a woman, rather than a youngster. Lea went on to film Back to the Future Part II (1989) and an episode of Tales from the Crypt (1989). She then married Howard Deutch. She continued filming Back to the Future Part III (1990), Montana (1990), and Article 99 (1992). Lea then took a break to stay home with her first born, Madelyn Deutch.
She jumped back into acting in Dennis the Menace (1993), where she says she just played herself. Then it was on to The Beverly Hillbillies (1993), Stolen Babies (1993), The Little Rascals (1994), and The Substitute Wife (1994). In 1994, she had her second child, Zoey Deutch. Lea then went into filming The Unspoken Truth (1995). It was then that she was first given the script of a new NBC sitcom, Caroline in the City (1995). It was probably the best decision Lea ever made. She won a People's choice Award for best actress in a new sitcom. Unfortunately, with all of NBC's problems, Caroline in the City (1995) kept being moved to a worse and worse time slot, giving it horrible ratings. The show ended after only four seasons. Bad ideas from the creators (Julia, etc.) didn't help, either.
Lea quickly went onto The Right to Remain Silent (1996), The Unknown Cyclist (1998), and A Will of Their Own (1998). She also guest-starred in the Friends (1994) episode, The One with the Baby on the Bus (1995), as "Caroline Duffy," and on The Larry Sanders Show (1992). Lea also did some stage work, including starring as "Sally Bowles" in "Cabaret." The show toured and also appeared on Broadway. She then did "The Vagina Monologues" in L.A. She had a stint in a dramatic role as a Chief Deputy Assistant District Attorney, "Camille Paris," on For the People (2002).
Thompson has starred in more than 30 films, 25 television movies, 4 television series, more than 20 ballets, and starred on Broadway in "Cabaret." Lea can currently be seen on ABC Family's Peabody Award winning hit show "Switched at Birth," where she acts and directs. Lea's movie credits include: "All the Right Moves," "Red Dawn," "Some Kind of Wonderful," "The Beverly Hillbillies," "Howard The Duck," (star and vocals) Clint Eastwood's "J. Edgar," the 2014 Sundance favorite Ping Pong Summer (2014), Fliegen (2005) starring Nicolas Cage, and The Year of Spectacular Men (2017), a film written by her daughter Madelyn Deutch. Thompson partnered with international Mirrorball Trophy holder Artem Chigvintsev on the 19th season of Dancing with the Stars (2005), placing sixth.
Lea lives in Los Angeles with her husband of over thirty years, film/television director Howard Deutch, and their two talented daughters, Madelyn and Zoey Deutch, along with many dogs, fish, horses, chickens, a cat, tortoise, and parrot. She supports and often performs for breast cancer, mental health, and Alzheimer's charities. Lea is currently writing her first book of essays.- Actress
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Precocious, outspoken child-teen starlet of the 1990s, Christina Ricci was born on February 12, 1980 in Santa Monica, California, the youngest of four children of Sarah (Murdoch), a realtor, and Ralph Ricci, a lawyer and therapist. She is of Italian (from her paternal grandfather), Irish, and Scots-Irish descent. She made her screen debut at the age of 9 in Mermaids (1990), in which she worked with Winona Ryder and Cher. Her breakthrough adult role was in The Ice Storm (1997), in which she plays a nymphet who skillfully seduces two brothers. She worked with Johnny Depp and Casper Van Dien in the Tim Burton film Sleepy Hollow (1999).- Robyn Elaine Lively Johnson is an American actress. She is known for her role in the film Teen Witch (1989) and for her roles in the TV shows Doogie Howser, M.D.; Twin Peaks; Savannah; and Saving Grace. Robyn Lively was born into a family of actors in Powder Springs, Georgia; her mother, adoptive father, and all four siblings are (or have been) in the entertainment industry. She is the daughter of talent manager Elaine Lively and her first husband Ronald Otis (Ronnie) Lively. Her siblings are sister Lori and brother Jason, and her half-siblings are Eric and Blake.
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Phoebe Belle Cates was born on July 16, 1963 in New York City, New York, and raised there. She is the daughter of Lily and Joseph Cates, who was a Broadway producer and television pioneer. Her uncle was director/producer Gilbert Cates. Phoebe is of Russian Jewish, and one quarter Chinese, descent. She studied at Miss Hewitt's school and at the Professional Children's School in New York City. She took classes at Juilliard when she was ten-years-old for three and a half years until a knee injury forced her to stop. Phoebe had been a busy New York model starting at the age of fourteen. She's since been featured on the covers of four Seventeens, two Elle covers, a British Vogue, and Andy Warhol's Interview, as well as in numerous layouts in other magazines. She actively pursued her modeling career, until she met her film agent at a party at New York's Studio 54. She trains with Robert Ravan, founder of The Actors' Circle in New York. Previously she studied with Alice Spivack of the H.B. Studios. Cates made her motion picture debut as Sarah in Paradise (1982) in the same year she starred as Jennifer Jason Leigh's "experienced" confidante in Amy Heckerling's acclaimed Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). Cates then landed the role of "Christine Ramsey" in Private School (1983), then co-starred in the innovative Gremlins (1984) for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, directed by Joe Dante. Cates has remained active in theatre, as well. After making her New York debut in Joseph Papp's Off-Broadway production of "The Nest of the Wood Grouse" in 1984, she followed with David Henry Hwang's "Rich Relations" at The Second Stage and a one-act festival at the Manhattan Punchline. On the West Coast, Cates played "Nina" in the La Jolla Playhouse production of Anton Chekhov's "The Sea Gull" and has since appeared in "Much Ado About Nothing" at New York's Public Theatre, and as "Juliet" in Chicago's Goodman Theatre production of "Romeo and Juliet".
Since 1989, Cates has been married to actor Kevin Kline, with whom she has two children.- Actress
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Christine Taylor is an American actress from Allentown, Pennsylvania. She is known for acting in The Brady Bunch film series and for her collaborations with American filmmaker, actor and comedian Ben Stiller. She acted in Zoolander, DodgeBall: A True Underdog Story, Zoolander 2 and many more. She has two children with husband Ben Stiller.- Actress
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Christina Applegate was born in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, to record producer/executive Robert Applegate and singer-actress Nancy Priddy. Her parents split-up shortly after her birth. She has two half-siblings from her father's re-marriage - Alisa (b. October 10, 1977) and Kyle (b. July 15, 1981). Alisa and Christina are best friends and even lived together while Alisa was going to college. Christina's mother took her along on all of her auditions and acting jobs. She made her acting debut at age five months, when her mother got her in a commercial for Playtex nursers. Her mother never remarried, but kept company with Stephen Stills. Christina still cherishes a guitar Stephen gave her when she was young. She played in a number of TV series before landing her breakout role in Married... with Children (1987). Christina still studies jazz dance.- Actress
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Jennifer Connelly was born in the Catskill Mountains, New York, to Ilene (Schuman), a dealer of antiques, and Gerard Connelly, a clothing manufacturer. Her father had Irish and Norwegian ancestry, and her mother was from a Jewish immigrant family. Jennifer grew up in Brooklyn Heights, just across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan, except for the four years her parents spent in Woodstock, New York. Back in Brooklyn Heights, she attended St. Ann's school. A close friend of the family was an advertising executive. When Jennifer was ten, he suggested that her parents take her to a modeling audition. She began appearing in newspaper and magazine ads (among them "Seventeen" magazine), and soon moved on to television commercials. A casting director saw her and introduced her to Sergio Leone, who was seeking a young girl to dance in his gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984). Although having little screen time, the few minutes she was on-screen were enough to reveal her talent. Her next role after that was an episode of the British horror anthology TV series Tales of the Unexpected (1979) in 1984.
After Leone's movie, horror master Dario Argento signed her to play her first starring role in his thriller Phenomena (1985). The film made a lot of money in Europe but, unfortunately, was heavily cut for American distribution. Around the same time, she appeared in the rock video "I Drove All Night," a Roy Orbison song, co-starring Jason Priestley. She released a single called "Monologue of Love" in Japan in the mid-1980s, in which she sings in Japanese a charming little song with semi-classical instruments arrangement. On the B-side is "Message Of Love," which is an interview with music in background. She also appeared in television commercials in Japan.
She enrolled at Yale, and then transferred two years later to Stanford. She trained in classical theater and improvisation, studying with the late drama coach Roy London, Howard Fine, and Harold Guskin.
The late 1980s saw her starring in a hit and three lesser seen films. Amongst the latter was her roles in Ballet (1989), as a ballerina and in Some Girls (1988), where she played a self-absorbed college freshman. The hit was Labyrinth (1986), released in 1986. Jennifer got the job after a nationwide talent search for the lead in this fantasy directed by Jim Henson and produced by George Lucas. Her career entered in a calm phase after those films, until Dennis Hopper, who was impressed after having seen her in "Some Girls", cast Jennifer as an ingénue small-town girl in The Hot Spot (1990), based upon the 1950s crime novel "Hell Hath No Fury". It received mixed critical reviews, but it was not a box office success.
The Rocketeer (1991), an ambitious Touchstone super-production, came to the rescue. The film was an old-fashioned adventure flick about a man capable of flying with rockets on his back. Critics saw in "Rocketeer" a top-quality movie, a homage to those old films of the 1930s in which the likes of Errol Flynn starred. After "Rocketeer," Jennifer made Career Opportunities (1991), The Heart of Justice (1992), Mulholland Falls (1996), her first collaboration with Nick Nolte and Inventing the Abbotts (1997). In 1998, she was invited by director Alex Proyas to make Dark City (1998), a strange, visually stunning science-fiction extravaganza. In this movie, Jennifer played the main character's wife, and she delivered an acclaimed performance. The film itself didn't break any box-office record but received positive reviews. This led Jennifer to a contract with Fox for the television series The $treet (2000), a main part in the memorable and dramatic love-story Waking the Dead (2000) and, more important, a breakthrough part in the polemic and applauded independent Requiem for a Dream (2000), a tale about the haunting lives of drug addicts and the subsequent process of decadence and destruction. In "Requiem for a Dream," Jennifer had her career's most courageous, difficult part, a performance that earned her a Spirit Award Nomination. She followed this role with Pollock (2000), in which she played Pollock's mistress, Ruth Klingman. In 2001, Ron Howard chose her to co-star with Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind (2001), the film that tells the true story of John Nash, a man who suffered from mental illness but eventually beats this and wins the Nobel Prize in 1994. Jennifer played Nash's wife and won a Golden Globe, BAFTA, AFI and Oscar as Best Supporting Actress. Connelly continued her career with films including Hulk (2003), her second collaboration with Nick Nolte, Dark Water (2005), Blood Diamond (2006), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), He's Just Not That Into You (2009) and Noah (2014), where she did her second collaboration with both Darren Aronofsky and Russell Crowe and made her third collaboration with Nick Nolte in that same film.
Jennifer lives in New York. She is 5'7", and speaks fluent Italian and French. She enjoys physical activities such as swimming, gymnastics, and bike riding. She is also an outdoors person -- camping, hiking and walking, and is interested in quantum physics and philosophy. She likes horses, Pearl Jam, SoundGarden, Jesus Jones, and occasionally wears a small picture of the The Dalai Lama on a necklace. Her favorite colors are cobalt blue, forest green, and "very pale green/gray -- sort of like the color of the sea". She likes to draw.- Actress
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Jennifer Eve Garth was born on April 3rd, 1972 in Urbana, Illinois, USA to John and Carolyn Garth, who both had 3 children each from different marriages, before they had Jennie. She grew up on a 25-acre horse ranch outside Urbana, Illinois with her 6 older siblings: Johnny, Chuck, Lisa, Cammie, Wendy and Lynn. When Jennie was 13, she and her family moved to Phoenix, Arizona. She took dancing lessons and did a little modeling while living in Arizona, and she dreamed of going to college and later start her own dance studio. At age 15, Jennie was discovered and encouraged to pursue an acting career by a talent scout, who had seen her win a talent competition. Therefore, she dropped out of high school during her junior year, and she and her mom moved to Los Angeles, California so she could become an actress. She later obtained her diploma in California. There, she started taking acting classes and went to auditions almost every day. After living in LA for about four months, she landed the role of 'Ericka McCray' on the NBC series A Brand New Life (1989). Within a year, she was cast as 'Kelly Taylor' on the long-running hit teen drama-series Beverly Hills, 90210 (1990) on FOX television. Ever since, she has starred in several movies made for TV, a number of which she has produced and directed herself. On January 20th, 2001, she married actor Peter Facinelli, the father of her first daughter, Luca Bella (born June 29th, 1997), on her ranch in Santa Barbara, California. On December 6th, 2002, Jennie and Peter welcomed their second daughter, Lola Ray and their third daughter Fiona Facinelli on September 30th, 2006. Jennie most recently starred in the WB network sitcom What I Like About You (2002) as 'Valerie Tyler' until its cancellation in 2006.- Actress
- Producer
- Executive
Jami Gertz was born on 28 October 1965 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. She is an actress and producer, known for Twister (1996), The Lost Boys (1987) and Still Standing (2002). She has been married to Antony Ressler since 16 June 1989. They have three children.- Actress
- Producer
- Writer
Alyssa Milano comes from an Italian-American family; her mother Lin Milano is a fashion designer and father Thomas Milano is a film music editor. Alyssa was born in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn and grew up in a modest house on Staten Island. One day her babysitter, who was an aspiring dancer, dragged Alyssa along to an open audition for the first national tour of "Annie". However, it was Alyssa and not the sitter who was chosen from 1500 other girls for the role. So at the tender age of seven, with her mother in tow, Alyssa joined the tour as July, one of the orphans. After 18 months on the road Alyssa, who had begun to garner a reputation as an energetic and charismatic young actress, left Annie to be featured in off-Broadway productions and television commercials. Then in 1983, at age 10, she landed her breakthrough role on the sitcom Who's the Boss? (1984) as Tony Danza's saccharine sweet daughter, "Samantha Micelli", a kid whose native Brooklyn accent rivaled her TV dad's. In order for Alyssa to accept the gig, the Milano family had to uproot and move 3,000 miles to Hollywood.- Actress
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Elisabeth Shue was born in Wilmington, Delaware, to Anne Brewster (Wells), who worked for the Chemical Banking Corporation, and James William Shue, a lawyer and real estate developer. She is of German and English ancestry, including descent from Mayflower passengers. Shue's parents divorced while she was in the fourth grade. Owing to the occupational demands of her parents, Shue and her siblings found plenty of time to get into trouble in their suburban neighborhood, but Elisabeth soon enrolled in Wellesley College, an all-female institution which kept her out of trouble.
During her studies, she found a way to make a little extra money by acting in television commercials. Elisabeth became a common sight in ads for Burger King, DeBeers diamonds, and Hellman's mayonnaise. In 1984, she landed a role in the The Karate Kid (1984) as the on-screen girlfriend of Ralph Macchio and a role as the teenage daughter of a military family in the short-lived series Call to Glory (1984). At this time, Shue got herself an acting coach and transferred to Harvard, where she began studying political science.
She continued her acting work with Adventures in Babysitting (1987), Cocktail (1988), Soapdish (1991) and The Marrying Man (1991). Unfortunately, time was catching up with the impressive girl-next-door. Her brother Andrew Shue had almost eclipsed her own fame by landing a starring role in the hit TV series Melrose Place (1992). It was at this time that Elisabeth took a chance on a low-budget, high-risk project entitled Leaving Las Vegas (1995), directed by Mike Figgis. Her gutsy portrayal of a prostitute mixed up with a suicidal alcoholic paid off as she was recognized with a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards that year. This was the turning point of her career. What followed was a barrage of film roles, including The Saint (1997), Woody Allen's Deconstructing Harry (1997), Palmetto (1998) and Hollow Man (2000).