Elisabeth Shue (born October 6, 1963) has starred in the films The Karate Kid (1984), Adventures in Babysitting (1987), Cocktail (1988), Back to the Future Part II (1989), Back to the Future Part III (1990), Soapdish (1991), Leaving Las Vegas (1995), The Saint (1997), Hollow Man (2000), Piranha 3D (2010), Battle of the Sexes (2017), Death Wish (2018), and Greyhound (2020).
For her performance in Leaving Las Vegas, Shue was nominated for the Oscar, BAFTA, and SAG Award.
On television, Shue played Julie Finlay in the CBS procedural forensics crime drama thriller CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2012–2015) and Madelyn Stillwell in the Amazon Prime Video satirical superhero series The Boys (2019–2020), a role she reprises in the animated series The Boys Presents: Diabolical (2022) and the spin-off series Gen V (2023). She also leads the Netflix dramedy series On the Verge (2021).
Shue was born on October 6, 1963, in Wilmington, Delaware, the daughter of Anne Brewster (née Wells), and James William Shue, a one-time congressional candidate, lawyer, and real estate developer, president of the International Food and Beverage Corporation. Her mother was vice president in private banking division of Chemical Bank Corporation.
Shue grew up in South Orange, New Jersey. Her parents divorced when she was nine. Shue’s mother is a descendant of Pilgrim leader William Brewster while her father’s family emigrated from Germany to Pennsylvania in the early 19th century.
Shue was raised with her three brothers (William, Andrew, and John) and was very close to them. Her younger brother, Andrew, is also an actor, best known for his role as Billy Campbell in the Fox series Melrose Place. Shue graduated from Columbia High School, in 1981 in Maplewood, New Jersey, where she and Andrew were inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1994. Shue has two half-siblings from her father’s remarriage, Jenna and Harvey Shue.
After graduating from high school, Shue attended Wellesley College. She then transferred to Harvard University in 1985, from which she withdrew to pursue her acting career (she was inspired by a friend to work in television commercials as a way to pay for college) one semester short of earning her degree. Over a decade later, in 2000, Shue returned to Harvard and completed her B.A. in government.
During her studies at Columbia High School and after her parents’ divorce, Shue began acting in TV commercials and ads for Burger King, Chewels bubble gum, and Best Foods/Hellmann’s mayonnaise.
She had small parts, credited as Lisa Shue, in The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana (1982) and Somewhere, Tomorrow (1983), which provided early starring role for Sarah Jessica Parker.
Shue made her feature debut in 1984, co-starring opposite Ralph Macchio in The Karate Kid as Ali Mills, high school cheerleader and the love interest of Macchio’s main character. Shue was a series regular as the teenage daughter of a military family in the short-lived TV series Call to Glory between 1984 and 1985, which she followed in 1986 starring alongside Terence Stamp in the British horror film Link.
In 1987 Shue appeared in the TV movie Double Switch (part of the Disney Sunday Movie series), co-starring with George Newbern, who would support her in her first star vehicle, the popular Adventures in Babysitting, in the same year.
In 1988, Shue starred in Cocktail as the love interest of Tom Cruise’s character. The following year, she starred in the short film Body Wars, which was used at Epcot in an ATLAS Simulator attraction in the Wonders of Life Pavilion until 2007.
She appeared as Jennifer Parker in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990), replacing Claudia Wells who declined to reprise the role due to her mother’s illness.
Her older brother, William, died in an accident on a family holiday. Although her career was on the rise with lead roles, Shue elected to take on the smaller supporting role of Jennifer in these sequels to allow her to deal with her family loss. The sequels were filmed back-to-back, and Shue featured prominently in Part II, appearing in bookend pieces in the third part of the trilogy.
In May 1990, Shue made her Broadway debut in Some American Abroad at the Lincoln Center.
In 1991, Shue appeared in the comedies The Marrying Man with Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin, and Soapdish with Sally Field, Robert Downey Jr., Kevin Kline, Cathy Moriarty, Whoopi Goldberg.
Between 1992 and 1994, Shue made the comedy Twenty Bucks (reuniting with Christopher Lloyd from Back to the Future), noir thriller The Underneath, guest appearance in Dream On, and romantic comedy Heart and Souls (reuniting with Robert Downey Jr.). She also returned to Broadway in 1993, performing in Tina Howe’s production of Birth and After Birth.
Although often cast as a girl-next-door type, in a career-defining role Shue starred as a prostitute in the 1995 film Leaving Las Vegas with Nicolas Cage. The role earned her Best Actress Oscar nod. Shue was also nominated for a BAFTA, Golden Globe and SAG Award for Best Actress, and won Best Actress at the Spirit Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and the National Society of Film Critics Awards.
Shue’s career flourished after her Oscar nomination, landing her diverse roles.
She starred in The Trigger Effect in 1996. Woody Allen’s Deconstructing Harry (1996) showcased her comedic abilities amongst heavyweight co-stars Billy Crystal, Demi Moore, Robin Williams and Stanley Tucci.
Shue also displayed some action movie skills in the 1997 spy remake The Saint opposite Val Kilmer. The thriller Palmetto (1998) afforded her the chance to play a film noir-ish femme fatale opposite Woody Harrelson; Shue co-starred in Cousin Bette (1998) with Jessica Lange, and Paul Verhoeven’s Hollow Man (2000) with Kevin Bacon proved another summer blockbuster.
In 1999, Shue starred as the titular Molly as autistic young woman placed into the care of her unwilling bachelor brother, played by Aaron Eckhart. Shue played a mother that reveals her dark past to her teenaged daughter in the 2001 ABC movie Oprah Winfrey Presents: Amy and Isabelle.
Shue starred in Leo (2002) with Joseph Fiennes and Dennis Hopper, Mysterious Skin (2004) opposite Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Hide and Seek (2005) opposite Robert De Niro and Dakota Fanning, and Dreamer (2005) opposite Dakota Fanning and Kurt Russell.
In 2007, Shue and her two brothers, Andrew and John, produced Gracie.
Shue played the mother of the main character who was loosely based on her own experiences as the only girl on a boys’ soccer team. Andrew also appeared as the soccer coach, and her previous co-star from The Trigger Effect Dermot Mulroney played the father of the main character. Andrew initially conceived of it as a story about their late brother William, the oldest Shue sibling, who was the captain of the high school soccer team; he died in a freak accident while the family was on a vacation in 1988. The older brother character of Johnny was based on Will. Shue also starred in the little seen First Born (2007) with Steven Mackintosh.
In 2008, Shue starred in Hamlet 2 as fictionalized version of herself. In the film, she has quit acting to become a nurse and is the favorite actress of Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan).
In 2009, Shue appeared on the seventh season of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm as an actress competing with Cheryl Hines’s character for the part of George’s ex-wife for the Seinfeld reunion. That same year, she starred alongside Thomas Haden Church in Don McKay.
In 2010, Shue starred in Piranha 3D as Sheriff Julie Forester. She also played the former groupie mother of Abigail Breslin in Janie Jones and a psychologist in Waking Madison alongside Sarah Roemer and Imogen Poots.
In 2012, Shue appeared in 3 films: the thriller House at the End of the Street with Jennifer Lawrence; Curtis Hanson’s Chasing Mavericks opposite Gerard Butler; and David Frankel’s Hope Springs as Karen the bartender in cameo scene with Meryl Streep.
In 2012, Shue returned to television in a series regular role when she joined the cast of Season 12’s CSI: Crime Scene Investigation as Julie Finlay opposite Ted Danson, and replacing Marg Helgenberger. Finlay is the newest CSI, who just finished anger-management classes.
Shue continued in the role until the end of Season 15 where her character’s fate was left hanging in the balance, later revealed in the two-part 2015 TV movie wrap-up finale of the entire series to have died (Shue did not appear). During her time on the series, being a massive tennis fan as well as regular tennis player, Shue jokingly suggested to the producers they have an episode centered around a murder at a tennis tournament. In Season 13, her wish was granted, and her friends and former pros-turned commentators, 18-time Grand Slam champion Chris Evert, three-time Grand Slam winner Lindsay Davenport and two-time mixed doubles Slam champ Justin Gimelstob appeared in an episode as themselves. Shue also re-united with Back to the Future alumna Lea Thompson, who guest starred in an episode of Season 14.
In 2014, Shue appeared as a cougar in Behaving Badly along with Selena Gomez, Nat Wolff and Heather Graham. In 2015, she guest-starred in an episode of the Patrick Stewart series Blunt Talk.
In 2017, Shue provided supporting role in Battle of the Sexes, opposite Steve Carell and Emma Stone. She had originally signed on as a tennis adviser for the film which recounts the 1973 showdown between female player Billie Jean King and former men’s champ Bobby Riggs.
In 2018, Shue co-starred in Eli Roth’s remake of Death Wish opposite Bruce Willis as his ill-fated wife. In the movie, she was also re-united with Vincent D’Onofrio, who appeared in Adventures in Babysitting with her.
In 2019, Shue took leading role as Madelyn Stillwell in the American superhero drama TV series, The Boys, with Karl Urban and Jack Quaid, and will be playing the lead role in the TNT TV pilot Constance, playing a corrupt former beauty queen. In the latter, she will also be one of the exec producers along with Robert Downey Jr. (whom she previously co-starred with in Soapdish and Heart and Souls) and his wife Susan Downey.
In 2020, Shue starred in Greyhound opposite Tom Hanks. That same year, she reprised her Karate Kid role as Ali Mills in the sequel series, Cobra Kai, alongside original co-stars Ralph Macchio and William Zabka.
In 1994, Shue married film director Davis Guggenheim with whom she has three children: Miles, November 11, 1997; daughter Stella, March 19, 2001; and daughter Agnes Charles, July 2, 2006.
Filmography
1983 Somewhere, Tomorrow Margie
1984 The Karate Kid Ali Mills
1986 Link Jane Chase
1987 Adventures in Babysitting Chris Parker
1988 Cocktail Jordan Mooney
1989 Back to the Future Part II Jennifer Parker
1990 Back to the Future Part III Jennifer Parker
1991 The Marrying Man Adele Horner
1991 Soapdish Lori Craven / “Angelique”
1993 Heart and Souls Anne
1993 Twenty Bucks Emily Adams
1994 Radio Inside Natalie
1995 The Underneath Susan Crenshaw
1995 Leaving Las Vegas Sera, Nominated Best Actress Oscar
1996 The Trigger Effect Annie Kay
1997 The Saint Dr. Emma Russell
1997 Deconstructing Harry Fay
1998 Palmetto Mrs. Donnelly / Rhea Malroux
1998 City of Angels Pregnant woman Uncredited Cameo
1998 Cousin Bette Jenny Cadine
1999 Molly Molly McKay
2000 Hollow Man Linda McKay
2002 Leo Mary Bloom
2002 Tuck Everlasting Narrator (voice)
2004 Mysterious Skin Ellen McCormick
2005 Hide and Seek Elizabeth Young
2005 Dreamer Lilly Crane
2007 First Born Laura
2007 Gracie Lindsay Bowen Also producer
2008 Hamlet 2 Herself
2009 Don McKay Sonny
2010 Piranha 3D Julie Forester
2010 Janie Jones Mary Ann Jones
2011 Waking Madison Dr. Elizabeth Barnes
2012 Hope Springs Karen, The Bartender
2012 House at the End of the Street Sarah Cassidy
2012 Chasing Mavericks Kristy Moriarity
2014 Behaving Badly Pamela Bender
2017 Battle of the Sexes Priscilla Wheelan
2018 Death Wish Lucy Kersey
2020 Greyhound Eva Frechette
2023 The Good Half Lily Wheeland
