Lea Katherine Thompson

Thompson was born May 31, 1961 in Rochester (Minnesota) Thompson was born in Minnesota, one of five children born to Clifford Barry Thompson, a musician. [ She is the sister of Coleen Goodrich and Shannon Katona, and two brothers Andrew and Barry. Her mother is of Irish descent.She began ballet training in her early years and started dancing professionally by the age of 14 when she was awarded scholarship opportunities to the San Francisco Ballet, the Pennsylvania Ballet, and the American Ballet Theatre.When she was 20 years old and dancing professionally with American Ballet Theatre's Studio Company (then known as ABT II), the time came to decide if she should join the company's main stage. Mikhail Baryshnikov was at the when the director of artistic. He told her "You are an amazing dancer however your body isn't a good fit." She described the incident as "my epiphany" that led her to quit dancing and become a ballet dancer. It was a wonderful moment. I could have smashed my head on the wall for 10 years. "[She changed to acting. She relocated to New York at the age of 20 and performed in numerous Burger King commercials in the 1980s, along with Sarah Michelle Gellar. Her co-star in Back to the Future Part II was Elisabeth Shue. and her movie debut in 1983, with Jaws 3-D. She recalled the film as "the very first movie I've ever seen, however I had lied and said that I'd done some other movies and when I turned up, I had absolutely nothing. I said I was able to water ski. However, I didn't. I had to learn water-skiing techniques that were difficult in five days as I had to be able to perform the Sea World water skiing show. I don't even know how to swim!" This was followed by All the Right Moves (1983), Red Dawn (84) and The Wild Life (84).