LEA THOMPSON Biography - Actors and Actresses

 
 

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LEA THOMPSON

Name: Lea Katherine Thompson                                                         
Born: 31 May 1961 Rochester, Minnesota                                               
                                                                                     
Lea Katherine Thompson (born May 31, 1961, in Rochester, Minnesota) is an           
American actress and Television Director                                             
                                                                                     
Thompson studied dance as a girl, and would practice three to four hours every       
day. She was dancing professionally by the age of 14. Lea then won scholarships     
to several ballet schools, including The American Ballet Theatre and The San         
Francisco Ballet. She danced with the The Minnesota Dance Theatre, The               
Pennsylvania Ballet Company, and The Ballet Repertory.                               
                                                                                     
She was informed by Baryshnikov that she was "too stocky". Due to this (as well     
as some small nagging injuries) she decided to give up dancing in favor of an       
acting career. She moved to New York at the age of 20, and performed in a number     
of Burger King ads in the 1980s along with Elisabeth Shue, her eventual co-star     
in the Back to the Future movies.                                                   
                                                                                     
Thompson's first significant movie role was in All the Right Moves (1983) with       
Tom Cruise. That was followed by Red Dawn (1984) and The Wild Life (1984). Her       
most famous role was that of Lorraine Baines McFly in the Back to the Future         
trilogy; her character is mother of the main character played by Michael J. Fox.     
She also starred in the movies Space Camp (1986) and Howard the Duck (1986),         
both considered commercial flops (in the latter film she sang several songs on       
the soundtrack in character as musician Beverley Switzer aka Cherry Bomb, and       
these recordings appeared on both the soundtrack album and on singles credited       
to "Dolby's Cube featuring Cherry Bomb). She did more movies Casual Sex?, Going     
Undercover, The Wizard of Loneliness, a TV movie Montana and she did other TV       
and movie works. She is also known for playing Alice Mitchell in the film           
version of Dennis the Menace (1993). Lea was also seen in The Beverly               
Hillbillies (1993).                                                                 
                                                                                     
Lea was nominated for a Cable ACE Award for her outstanding work in Nightbreaker,   
and she has been a winner of the People's Choice Award. Lea also received           
critical acclaim for her work with Farrah Fawcett in The Substitute Wife. Then       
she went to star in several more TV movies The Unspoken Truth (1995), The Right     
To Remain Silent (1996) and the popular Mini-Series, A Will of their Own (1998)     
                                                                                     
Thompson found critical and popular success as the star of the NBC sitcom           
Caroline in the City from 1995-1999. After taking a break from acting, she went     
on to star in broadway plays, then after about three years, she starred in           
another TV series called For the People. The show only lasted one season. Then       
starred in a TV movie called Stealing Christmas (2003) starring Tony Danza and       
Betty White. After she starred 3 episodes of the highly rated show Ed.               
                                                                                     
In 2005, Thompson starred in a series of made-for-TV movies for the Hallmark         
Channel in which she plays "Jane Doe," an ex-secret agent turned housewife who       
helps the government solve mysteries. She also played a guest role in a 2004         
episode of NBC's Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, playing a woman who had her     
embryos stolen.                                                                     
                                                                                     
Thompson was a featured celebrity singer on Celebrity Duets and was the 2nd         
contestant eliminated (Friday, Sept. 8, 2006). From 2007 through 2008, more Jane     
Doe Series were released, two of which Lea directed: The Harder they Fall and       
Eye of the Beholder. In April 2007 another TV movie, A Life Interrupted             
premiered on Lifetime. It is about a rape survivor who overcomes her                 
debilitating fear by working to get funding to process the terrible backlog of       
rape kits processed, so that other women may not have to suffer for years, as       
she did. Other movies Lea has worked on which are wiating for release California     
Dreaming, Senior Skip Day, Exit Speed, Doubting Thomas, and another TV movie         
Final Approach being released on April 6th, 2008 on the Hallmark channel. She is     
in-development of a new movie called "Balancing the Books" It might be released     
in late 2008. In January 2008, She guest starred on the show Head Case