Lea Katherine Thompson

Thompson was born in Rochester, Minnesota on May 31st, 1961. She is the fifth child of Clifford Thompson and Barbara Barry Thompson and Barbara Barry Thompson. She has two older sisters, Coleen Goodrich (and Shannon Katona) and two brothers younger than her, Barry and Andrew. Her mother is of Irish descent.She studied ballet as a girl and danced professionally at the age of 14 and was awarded scholarship opportunities to the San Francisco Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre.When she turned 20 old and dancing professionally with American Ballet Theatre's Studio Company (then known as ABT II), the time was right to make a decision on whether she should join the main company. Mikhail baryshnikov was then the artistic director, told her "You're a lovely dancer but you're too tall." According to her, it was "my epiphany ," when I decided to stop dancing and not being a ballet performer. This was a very special moment. If it wasn't for that, I would have been smashing my head into walls for the next 10+ years. "[ She switched her focus on acting. At the age of 20, she relocated to New York with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Elisabeth Shue and some other Burger King ads. In 1982, CareerThompson played Cecily "Sissy", the live-action game called MysteryDisc Murder! Who? Jaws 3-D, her movie debut in 1983. I claimed I knew how water ski. I wasn't. I had to master water-skiing techniques that were really difficult in five days because I needed to do the Sea World water skiing show. I don't even have the ability to swim!" She followed that with All the Right Moves (1983), Red Dawn (1984), and The Wild Life (1984).