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Elisabeth Shue

Elisabeth ShueAKA Elisabeth J. Shue

Born: 6-Oct-1963
Birthplace: Wilmington, DE

Gender: Female
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor

Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Leaving Las Vegas

In sixth grade, frustrated that there were no girls' soccer teams, Shue tried out and won a spot on the boys' team, and played against boys for three years. When her high school wouldn't add a girls' soccer team, she took up gymnastics, and became captain of the team. Shue started acting professionally when she was a student at Wellesley College, with commercials for Hellmann's Mayonnaise and Burger King. With a baby-face that allowed her to play girls much younger than her age, she was perfect for teen roles without needing any of the oversight required for child actors.

At 21 playing 16, she played Ralph Macchio's romantic interest in the original Karate Kid movie. The next year she co-starred in Call to Glory, a TV series about a military family in the early 1960s, with Craig T. Nelson as her dad. At 25, she was still believable as a harried high school girl in Chris Columbus's farce Adventures in Babysitting. She finally grew up in Cocktail, but went back to high school as Michael J. Fox's girlfriend in two sequels to Back to the Future (a different actress had played the part in the original).

Since then her better films have included the soap opera comedy Soapdish, the guardian angel sing-a-long Heart and Souls, and Hide and Seek. She was Oscar-nominated in 1995, for Leaving Las Vegas. Her worst performance is probably Molly, as an institutionalized autistic who undergoes brain surgery. She has politely but emphatically complained that most Hollywood movies give actresses nothing to do beyond gazing into the leading actor's eyes and playing "his girlfriend", "his wife", "his mother", etc. Between movies, Shue earned her BA in Political Science from Harvard in 2000.

Shue comes from a blue-blood Ivy League family that traces its genealogy back to the Mayflower. Her brother Andrew achieved some fame as an actor on Melrose Place and played professional soccer. Another brother, John, was captain of the Harvard soccer team, and produced Gracie, a film loosely based on 15-year-old Elisabeth's soccercentric response to the sudden death of her oldest brother, William. The film was directed by her husband, Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim. Her father-in-law, Charles Guggenheim, was a documentary filmmaker who was Oscar-nominated 11 times, and won four.

Father: James Shue (real-estate developer, former public defender)
Mother: Anne Wells Shue Harms (bank executive)
Brother: William Shue (medical student, d. 1988 accidental impalement)
Brother: Andrew Shue (actor, soccer player)
Brother: John Shue (acquisition investor, co-owner of Mongoose Media)
Boyfriend: Val Kilmer (actor)
Husband: Davis Guggenheim (b. 1964, m. 1994, sep. 1996, reconciled)
Son: Miles William Guggenheim (b. 11-Nov-1997)
Daughter: Stella Street Guggenheim (b. 19-Mar-2001)
Daughter: Agnes Charles Guggenheim (b. 18-Jun-2006)

    High School: Columbia High School, Maplewood, NJ
    University: Wellesley College
    University: BA Political Science, Harvard University (2000)

    Obama for America
    English Ancestry
    Risk Factors: Smoking, Marijuana

    TELEVISION
    Call to Glory Jackie Sarnac (1984-85)

    FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
    Death Wish (1-Mar-2018)
    Battle of the Sexes (2-Sep-2017)
    Behaving Badly (9-Jun-2014)
    Chasing Mavericks (25-Oct-2012)
    House at the End of the Street (21-Sep-2012)
    Hope Springs (8-Aug-2012) · Karen, the Bartender
    Janie Jones (17-Sep-2010)
    Piranha 3D (20-Aug-2010) · Julie Forester
    Don McKay (24-Apr-2009) · Sonny
    Hamlet 2 (21-Jan-2008)
    First Born (20-Mar-2007)
    Gracie (12-Mar-2007)
    Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story (10-Sep-2005)
    Hide and Seek (27-Jan-2005)
    Mysterious Skin (3-Sep-2004)
    Leo (11-Sep-2002)
    Tuck Everlasting (8-Sep-2002) · Narrator [VOICE]
    Amy & Isabelle (4-Mar-2001)
    Hollow Man (2-Aug-2000) · Linda McKay
    Molly (Jul-1999) · Molly McKay
    Cousin Bette (12-Jun-1998)
    Palmetto (20-Feb-1998)
    Deconstructing Harry (26-Aug-1997)
    The Saint (4-Apr-1997) · Dr. Emma Russell
    The Trigger Effect (30-Aug-1996) · Annie
    Leaving Las Vegas (15-Sep-1995)
    The Underneath (28-Apr-1995) · Susan
    Blind Justice (25-Jun-1994)
    Radio Inside (1994) · Natalie
    Twenty Bucks (22-Oct-1993)
    Heart and Souls (13-Aug-1993) · Anne
    Soapdish (31-May-1991) · Lori Craven
    The Marrying Man (5-Apr-1991)
    Back to the Future Part III (25-May-1990) · Jennifer
    Back to the Future Part II (22-Nov-1989) · Jennifer
    Cocktail (29-Jul-1988) · Jordan Mooney
    Adventures in Babysitting (1-Jul-1987)
    Link (5-Mar-1986)
    The Karate Kid (22-Jun-1984) · Ali
    Somewhere, Tomorrow (1983)


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