Bonnie Bedelia

Born: 25 March 1946
Where: New York

Bonnie Bedelia (nee Culkin) began her career as a young performer on stage and TV along with her older brother Kit - father of Macaulay, Kieran, Quinn and Rory Culkin.

After being spotted by a talent scout in a school production of Tom Sawyer, she made her stage debut at the North Jersey Playhouse and later earned a full scholarship at George Balanchine's New York City Ballet.

She danced in four productions at City Ballet before hanging up her shoes in favour of acting. After a five-year stint (1961-66) as a regular on the daytime series Love of Life, Bedelia was on Broadway in My Sweet Charlie.

It wasn't long before movie roles followed, with Bedelia making her film acting debut in The Gypsy Moths in 1969.

She was memorable as a pregnant marathon dancer in They Shoot Horses, Don't They? and as the bride to be in the comedy Lovers and Other Strangers.

Although her career was on an upward swing, the actress opted to concentrate on marriage and motherhood and cut down on her feature film appearances for much of the remainder of the decade.

Staging something of a comeback in 1983, Bedelia earned critical praise for her performance as race car driver Shirley Muldowney in the biopic Heart Like a Wheel.

In 1988, she was cast as the spouse of Bruce Willis in Die Hard, a role she reprised in the sequel Die Hard 2: Die Harder.

The 1990s were good to her - she played Harrison Ford's wife in the legal thriller Presumed Innocent and delivered a string of memorable turns in small screen efforts, and had a featured role in Anywhere But Here.

As the new millennium dawned, Bedelia starred in the comedy Sordid Lives, cast as a homophobic woman coping with the death of her mother, the incarceration of her gay brother and her son's declaration of his homosexuality.