Elisabeth Shue
Born: October 16 1963
Where: Wilmington, Delaware, USA
The actress broke through with her Oscar-nominated portrayal of an abused hooker opposite Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas.
She broke into the television business at the age of 16 when she starred in a series of 20 national Burger King adverts.
Shue made her feature film debut in 1984 as Ralph Macchio's girlfriend in The Karate Kid, and spent a year as the teenage daughter of Craig T Nelson on the TV series Call to Glory.
In the late 80s, Elisabeth starred in Adventures in Babysitting, was Tom Cruise's love interest in Cocktail, and was Marty McFly's (Michael J. Fox)girlfriend in the second and third instalments of the Back to the Future series.
She finally got rid of her wholesome girl next door image when she took the role of Sera, an abused prostitute who becomes involved with a suicidal screenwriter (Cage), in 1995's Leaving Las Vegas.
Shue earned several critics' prizes, a Best Actress Oscar nomination and greater recognition from the Hollywood A-list.
In 1997, she starred alongside Val Kilmer in the disappointing big screen version of The Saint and was then cast by Woody Allen in the comedy Deconstructing Harry.
In 1999, she played a simple soul who maintains her childlike innocence when a miraculous cure transforms her autism to genius, in the critically derided Molly.
In 2000, she starred in Paul Verhoeven's sci-fi horror Hollow Man and alongside Joseph Fiennes in the drama Leo in 2002.
Her son is named after her late brother William who died when he fell out of a tree and was impaled on a broken branch.
Recent work includes the acclaimed child sex abuse drama Mysterious Skin and the lacklustre horror-thriller Hide & Seek.
