On May 31, 1961, Lea Thompson was born in Rochester, MN. After performing as a ballerina as a teenager, she began her acting career at 20 years old. Although she has been a Hollywood veteran for the past 30 years, she is still best known for playing Marty McFly’s mother, Lorraine Baines McFly, in the “Back to the Future” film trilogy. Thompson returns to movie theaters this June with her big-screen directorial debut, “The Year of Spectacular Men.”
When Thompson began her career as a performer, she had her heart set on becoming a prima ballerina. At 14 she won scholarships to the American Ballet Theatre, the San Francisco Ballet and the Pennsylvania Ballet. By 20 years old, Thompson was dancing professionally with American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company when she received life-changing advice from Mikhail Baryshnikov. Deliberating if she should move to the main company, Baryshnikov, who the artistic director at the time, dissuaded her. He told her, “You’re a lovely dancer, but you’re too stocky.” Even though others would have been deflated by this advice, Thompson felt liberated by it. She traded in her tutu and ballet slippers to pursue an acting career in New York City.
That same year Thompson performed in a series of Burger King commercials with Sarah Michelle Gellar as well as her future “Back To The Future” trilogy co-star, Elisabeth Shue. In the early 1980s, she was cast with several heartthrob actors of the day, including Tom Cruise in “All The Right Moves” and Patrick Swayze in “Red Dawn.” In 1985, she had her breakout role in the first of the three “Back to the Future” films as the mother of Marty McFly, Lorraine. Thompson also starred in other iconic 1980s movies including the summer adventure film “Space Camp” (1986), “Howard the Duck” (1986) and “Casual Sex?” (1988). Thompson also played Amanda Jones in “Some Kind of Wonderful” (1987), written by John Hughes and directed by her now-husband, Howard Deutch.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Thompson starred in a series of television shows. She was Caroline in “Caroline in the City” from 1995 to 1999, and from 2011 to 2017, Thompson starred in the TV show, “Switched At Birth.” Another highlight from that decade includes the 2007 Lifetime film, “A Life Interrupted,” about Debbie Smith, a sexual assault victim whose plight led to a law that helped other rape victims.
Thompson is returning to the big screen with the release of her silver screen directorial debut, “The Year of Spectacular Men,” in which she co-stars with her two daughters, Zoey and Madelyn. Then, in September, Thompson will play the matriarch, Marmee March, in a new film adaptation of “Little Women,” timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary-publishing date of the Louisa May Alcott classic.
Happy 57th Birthday, Lea Thompson!
