COURTNEY THORNE-SMITH Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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COURTNEY THORNE-SMITH

Name: Courtney Thorne-Smith                                                         
Born: 8 November 1967 San Francisco, California, United States                       
                                                                                     
Courtney Thorne-Smith (born November 8, 1967) is an American actress. She is         
best known for her portraying of Alison Parker on Melrose Place, Georgia Thomas     
on Ally McBeal and Cheryl in According to Jim.                                       
                                                                                     
Courtney Thorne-Smith was born in San Francisco, California on November 8, 1967,     
and grew up in Menlo Park, a suburb south of the city. Her father, Walter Smith,     
was a computer market researcher and her mother was a therapist. They divorced       
when she was 7 and she lived with both at different stages. Courtney attended       
Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California, and graduated from Tamalpais     
High School in Mill Valley, California, in 1985. She also performed with the         
Ensemble Theater Company in Mill Valley, California, while attending high school.   
                                                                                     
In June of 2000, Courtney married a genetic scientist named Andrew Conrad, but       
they divorced in January of 2001. After meeting him on an airplane, she married     
Roger Fishman on January 1, 2007. On January 11, 2008, Courtney gave birth to       
their first child, a baby boy named Jacob 'Jake' Emerson Fishman.                   
                                                                                     
Courtney made her first film appearance in the 1986 feature film drama, Lucas       
alongside Winona Ryder, Corey Haim, and Charlie Sheen. She was also involved in     
a number of movies in the late 1980s, such as Summer School (1987), Revenge of       
the Nerds II: Nerds in Paradise (1987), Side Out (1990), and "Chairman of the       
Board" (1998).                                                                       
                                                                                     
Courtney's celebrity, however, would come more from performing on television.       
She appeared on a few mid-80s television shows such as Fast Times and Growing       
Pains, as well as made-for-TV movies including The Thanksgiving Promise and         
Infidelity before landing a regular role in the short-lived sitcom Day by Day       
with Douglas Sheehan, Linda Kelsey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. In 1990, she was         
featured in 6 episodes of the very popular TV show LA Law as Kimberly Dugan.         
                                                                                     
Her first notable television role was playing Alison Parker on the nighttime         
drama Melrose Place from 1992-1997. She also went on to play Georgia Thomas on       
Ally McBeal from 1997-2000. In 1999, she became a spokeswoman for Almay             
cosmetics, being the face of their new line of make-up "Skin Stays Clean."           
Courtney left the Ally McBeal show because she felt pressured to be so thin that     
her health was in jeopardy, and also wanted to spend more time with then-new         
husband Andrew Conrad.                                                               
                                                                                     
Since 2001, Courtney has starred as Cheryl on the sitcom According to Jim. Her       
pregnancy was hidden on the show at first, but will be written in according to       
TVGuide.com                                                                         
                                                                                     
On September 18, 2007, Thorne-Smith's novel, Outside In, was published by           
Broadway Books.