Elisabeth Judson Shue (born October 6, 1963) is an Academy Award-nominated American film actress.

Biography

Early life

Shue was born in Wilmington, Delaware. Her mother, Anne Harms (née Wells), was a bank executive who was the vice president of the private division of the Chemical Banking Corporation. Her father, James Shue, is a lawyer and real estate developer who was the president of the International Food and Beverage Corporation and was active in Republican politics, having once unsuccessfully run for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey.

Shue grew up in Bergen and Essex counties in New Jersey. Her parents divorced while she was in the fourth grade.Shue graduated from Columbia High School, in Maplewood, New Jersey, and attended Wellesley College and Harvard University, from which she withdrew to pursue her acting career. She returned to Harvard, 15 years after withdrawing, to finish her degree in Government in 2000.Shue was awarded entrance into Columbia High School’s Hall of Fame in 1994, along with her brother, the actor Andrew Shue.

1980s

During her studies at Columbia and after her parents’ divorce, she found a way to make extra money by acting in television commercials. Shue became a common sight in ads for Burger King, DeBeers diamonds, and Hellman’s mayonnaise.

In 1984, she co-starred in The Karate Kid as the onscreen girlfriend of Ralph Macchio and had a role as the teenage daughter of a military family in the short-lived series Call to Glory. She continued with Adventures in Babysitting (her first starring role), Cocktail as the love interest of Tom Cruise and the comedies Soapdish and The Marrying Man. She also appeared in Back to the Future Part II and Back to the Future Part III as Jennifer Parker, replacing original actress Claudia Wells, who declined to reprise the role from Back to the Future.

1990s–present

Although often recognized for her girl next door image, Shue starred as a prostitute in the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas with Nicolas Cage. The role earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She was also nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Actress, and won the Best Actress awards at the Independent Spirit Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and the National Society of Film Critics Awards.

Since then, she has starred in The Trigger Effect, The Saint, Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry, Palmetto, and Hollow Man. In 1999, Shue starred in Molly as an autistic young woman, who underwent an operation that allowed her to become more “normal.” She had strong supporting roles in Hide and Seek opposite Robert De Niro and Mysterious Skin. Shue reportedly was set to co-star with Jim Carrey in The Number 23 but became pregnant just weeks before filming and ended up losing the part to Virginia Madsen.

In 2007, Shue and her two brothers produced Gracie. She had a role in the film, which is set in 1978 and loosely based upon Elisabeth’s own experiences as the only girl on a boys soccer team.

In 2008, Shue starred in Hamlet 2 as a fictionalized version of herself; in the film, she has quit acting to become a nurse and is the favorite actress of the Steve Coogan character.

She will have a role in the upcoming psychological thriller Waking Madison, for director Katherine Brooks.It centers on a woman suffering from multiple personality disorder trying to piece her life back together.

Personal life

Known among her friends and family as “Lisa,” Shue is married to Davis Guggenheim, director of the HBO TV series Deadwood, An Inconvenient Truth and Gracie. Their son, Miles William, was born on November 11, 1997. She gave birth to her first daughter, Stella Street, on March 19, 2001. Her last child, Agnes Charles, was born on June 18, 2006. Her son’s middle name was in honor of her second brother William, who died in 1988 at the age of 26 from a swimming accident while on family vacation.

Filmography

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