Marley Shelton Biography
Born: April 12, 1974
An actress whose fresh-faced girl-next-door beauty has adapted easily to both comic and dramatic roles, Marley Shelton was born in southern California on April 12, 1974. Her mother was a schoolteacher who dabbled in acting while her father worked as a director for film, television, and the stage. During her high-school days, Shelton was a member of the cheerleading squad and was named prom queen in her senior year. She began to develop an interest in acting, and in 1991 won her first film role, a slam supporting part in Lawrence_Kasdan's Grand_Canyon. In the next two years, Shelton made a few appearances on episodic television and appeared in the made-for-TV movie In the Line of Duty: Ambush in Waco, but it was in 1993's The_Sandlot that she made her first real impression on the big screen as Wendy, the lust-inducing teenage lifeguard. That same year, Shelton earned a recurring role on the dramatic television series Angel Falls, alongside fellow cast members Jean_Simmons, Shirley_Knight, Peggy_Lipton, and James_Brolin, but the show only lasted one season.
More television work followed, including key roles in several made-for-TV movies and appearances on Hercules and the revived Fantasy_Island, before Shelton's film career began to take hold. She played Tricia Nixon in Oliver_Stone's biopic Nixon and a beautiful but fickle teenager in the little-seen comedy Trojan_War, but her first major hit came in 1998 with Pleasantville, in which she played Margaret, the love interest of leading man Tobey_Maguire (and one of the first teens to become "colorful"). In 1999, she played Kristin, one of the "popular girls" in Never_Been_Kissed, and two years later scored her first leading role, in which she got to put her cheerleading skills to use as Diane, the pep-squad girl-turned-teenage mother and criminal in Sugar & Spice. Offscreen, in 2001, Shelton married television and movie producer Beau_Flynn, who helped cast her as Chloe, the beautiful girl next door in the comedy Bubble_Boy.
In the following few years, Shelton's onscreen career seemed to plateau somewhat when a variety of indie projects including Just a Kiss, Dallas_362, Grand_Theft_Parsons, and Moving Alan -- directed by her father, Christopher, and starring her sister Samantha -- failed to achieve mainstream success. Nevertheless the actress remained busy, and it was shortly after appearing in a failed updating of the once-popular gothic soap opera Dark_Shadows that Shelton landed the role which, however small, seems to have been a turning point in her career. Though her role opposite Josh_Hartnett in Robert_Rodriguez's violent comic-book adaptation Sin_City amounted to little more than a glorified cameo, it did provide wide-scale exposure in addition to connecting her with one of the most innovative and tireless filmmakers of his generation.
Subsequent roles in Wim_Wenders' Don't_Come_Knocking, Paul_Weitz's American_Dreamz, and the Paul_Haggis-scripted The_Last_Kiss were quick to follow, and in 2007, Shelton reunited with Sin_City director Rodriguez for a substantial role in "Planet Terror" -- Rodriguez' zombie-filled contribution to the ambitious double-feature throwback Grindhouse. Shelton's striking, mascara-smeared visage formed a key component of Grindhouse's advertising campaign, and her role in "Planet Terror" promised just the kind of edgy thrills needed to launch her career into overdrive. Rovi
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