Karen Young

Born: September 28 1958
Where: Pequannock, New Jersey, USA

The actress's big screen career burned its brightest during the 1980s with appearances in Alan Parker's Birdy and the steamy erotic drama 9 1/2 weeks.

However, she has enjoyed a renaissance on the small screen as Agent Robyn Sanseverino in The Sopranos.

The eldest of six children and the daughter of a stonemason, she moved to New York after graduating from Rutgers University in New Jersey.

Early stages successes included A Lie of the Mind, directed by Sam Shephard, and she made her big screen debut with a lead role in the 1983 action/drama Deep in the Heart.

The following year she landed a supporting role alongside Natassia Kinski in Maria's Lovers and had a major part in Birdy with Matthew Modine.

After Adrian Lyne's 9 1/2 weeks, she starred in the Burt Reynolds action thriller Heat and went on to appear in the much-maligned Jaws: The Revenge.

In 1988, she starred alongside Gary Oldman and Kevin Bacon in the thriller Criminal Law and the following year in another thriller - Night Game - with Roy Schneider.

Work in TV movies followed before she played an abusive mother in Joe the King and starred in the Ellen Barkin mystery thriller Mercy in 2000.

After a stint in the TV drama Law & Order, she appeared in the 2005 drama Factotum and Laurent Cantet's sex tourism movie Heading South.