Ally Sheedy

While Ally Sheedy is best known for her acting roles, particularly those with the other members of the Brat Pack from the 1980s movies about teenage angst, she actually established herself with two different occupations before attempting her acting career.

Sheedy was born June 13, 1962, as one of three children to advertising executive, John Sheedy, and a press agent, Charlotte Baum. After her parents’ divorce in 1971, her mother, actively involved in the women’s and civil rights movements, came out as lesbian. Sheedy was raised mostly with her father’s Catholic beliefs rather than those of her Jewish mother’s.

At the young age of six, Sheedy was already established as a dancer with the American Ballet Theatre where she stayed until she was fourteen. At the age of twelve, while attending New York’s Bank Street School, Sheedy wrote a book, She Was Nice to Mice, about a meeting between Queen Elizabeth and a Mouse. Sheedy gave up dancing at the age of fourteen after developing an eating disorder, and tiring of the strict diets and starvation required of dancers.

In 1981 Sheedy landed a series of roles in made-for-television movies such as I Think I’m Having a Baby, The Best Little Girl in the World, and Splendor in the Grass, alongside such notable actors as Jennifer Jason Leigh, Helen Hunt, Eva Marie Saint, Jessica Lange, Melissa Gilbert, and Michelle Pfeiffer. Sheedy also had guest roles on many television series, including a recurring guest role on Hill Street Blues with Daniel J Travanti and Ed Marinaro.