Karen Allen

Born: October 5 1951
Where: Carollton, Illinois, USA

The actress is probably best known for the role of Indiana Jones' old flame Marion Ravenwood in the action blockbuster Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Nineteen years later she would reprise the role of the feisty bar-owner alongside Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

Other notable appearances have included the part of Katy in National Lampoon's Animal House and 1984 sci-fi fantasy Sandman opposite Jeff Bridges.

The daughter of a teacher and an FBI agent, Allen spent her first 10 years travelling around the country with her parents and two sisters.

After graduating from DuVal Senior High School, in Lanham, MD at 17, she moved to New York to study art and design at Fashion Institute of Technology.

She later attended the University of Maryland, College Park and spent time traveling through South and Central America.

In 1974, Allen joined a theatre group and three years later moved back to New York and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theater Institute.

Allen made her major film debut in National Lampoon's Animal House, the 1978 runaway frat boy success starring John Belushi.

Her next two appearances were in The Wanderers in 1979 and A Small Circle of Friends in 1980, where she played one of three radical college students during the 1960s.

In 1981, director Steven Spielberg - who had remembered her from Animal House - cast her as strong-willed heroine Marion Ravenwood in Raiders of the Lost Ark.

(Sean Young had auditioned for the role and Debra Winger had turned it down).

The following year she switched styles to star in the Alan Parker drama Shoot The Moon with Albert Finney and also starred in the rom-com Until September opposite Christopher Cazenove.

In 1984, she starred as a widow who's is visited by an alien who resembles her husband in director John Carpenter's Oscar-nominated Starman.

Often taking breaks away from movie roles to concentrate on stage acting, she returned in 1987 to play Laura in the Paul Newman directed movie version of the Tennessee William's play, The Glass Menagerie, with John Malkovich and Joanne Woodward.

The following year she played Bill Murray's long-lost love Claire Philips in the Christmas comedy Scrooged and also portrayed crew member Christa McAuliffe in the controversial TV movie Challenger, based on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

Allen subsequently appeared in Spike Lee's 1992 biopic Malcolm X, the disaster blockbuster The Perfect Storm in 2000 and the multi-Oscar nominated drama In the Bedroom in 2001.

In recent years, film appearances have died down while Allen concentrated on off-screen pursuits including her yoga retreat and her own clothing line as well as raising her son.

However, Spielberg again came calling when he invited to reprise the role of Marion Ravenwood in the 2008 sequel Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crystal Skull.