Lea Thompson - Caroline Far Beyond the City Quiz

Answer: Ballet

Lea developed her love for dance and the ballet at a very early age, and trained as a ballerina from childhood. During her teenage years she danced in over 40 ballets, including appearances at the Minnesota Dance Theatre and the Ballet Repertory. After an apprenticeship at the Pennsylvania Ballet Company, Lea earned a scholarship to the American Ballet Theatre.

Her dreams for a career as a professional ballerina were dashed after she auditioned for legendary dancer Mikhail Baryshnikov, who told Lea (5'4" tall, and then weighing less than 100 pounds) that she was "too stocky" to succeed in ballet.

In a 1995 interview with "InStyle" magazine, Lea said of her rejection by Baryshnikov, "I was 94 pounds and was so dedicated - I had studied theater and African dance and felt like such an artist - that I walked out the door and quit dancing."

Answer: Burger King

Lea Thompson and Sarah Michelle Gellar both appeared in television commercials for Burger King during the early 1980s. Lea went on to make over 20 commercials for the fast food giant. Lea's other advertising work has included television ads for Twix candy and Chevrolet Malibu trucks.

Sarah's 1982 Burger King commercial was the first to ever mention their main competitor by name, claiming that McDonald's hamburgers were "smaller" than Burger King's. The commercial so outraged the McDonald's Corporation that they filed a lawsuit against both Burger King and Ms. Gellar (who was the ripe old age of five at the time). That infamous suit, dubbed "The Battle of the Burgers", was eventually settled out of court.

Answer: Jaws 3-D

"Jaws 3-D", third in the "Jaws" series (aka "Jaws III"), starred Bess Armstrong, Dennis Quaid, and Louis Gossett Jr., and bore very little resemblance to the first two films. Set at a Sea World theme park in Florida rather than at Amity Island, a marauding Great White wrecked havoc on the park's "undersea kingdom". As the title suggests, the original theatrical version was released in three-dimensional format, with predictably poor visual effects. Lea played Kelly Ann Bukowski, a member of Sea World's exhibition water skiing team, and she took the role despite being unable to either swim or water ski.

During the filming of "Jaws 3-D", Lea became romantically involved with co-star Dennis Quaid, and a four-year relationship ensued. The couple became engaged, but never married before parting company.

Answer: Tom Cruise

"All the Right Moves" was a coming-of-age film about an ambitious high school football star, Stefan "Stef" Djordjevic (Tom Cruise), struggling to escape a dreary Pennsylvania steel-mill town, with dreams of a football scholarship to study engineering. Along the way, Stef was also forced to struggle with his dictatorial football coach (Craig T. Nelson), and with the emotional and sexual tension arising from his evolving relationship with Lisa (Lea Thompson). Lisa also dreamed of escaping their grimy hometown, but being a female musician - instead of a star football player - she realized her prospects weren't quite as bright as Stef's. Although faithful Lea Thompson fans have fond memories of her performance in "All the Right Moves", director Michael Chapman was said to be so dissatisfied with her that she was nearly fired from the film.

Set in the fictional town of "Ampipe", "All the Right Moves" was filmed on location in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the same real mill town that served as the fictional "Charlestown" in George Roy Hill's 1977 ice hockey classic, "Slap Shot".

Answer: Lorraine McFly

The "Back to the Future" trilogy told the misadventures of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd). Traveling back in time in Doc's 1981 DeLorean ("The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?"), Marty met his own mother Lorraine McFly (maiden name Lorraine Baines), portrayed by Lea Thompson. Thanks to the peculiarities of time travel - and paradoxical alteration of the space-time continuum - Lea's character was also Lorraine Tannen in "BTTF Part II", and Maggie McFly in "BTTF Part III".

Of her character in the trilogy - which required her to portray Lorraine as a teenager, as a middle-aged adult, and in alternative personas - Lea has said the following: "What makes the 'Back to the Future' films so wonderful for me as an actress, and I think for audiences as well, is that the filmmakers didn't try to cast someone who just looked like us in the older versions of our characters. It's essential to the story that the audience knows that it's the same actor playing the role, and hopefully they will accept us in our older characterizations. When I read the script to the first film, I thought the story was terrific and very interesting. When they told me I would be playing both young and old Lorraine, I knew it would be a tremendous challenge, so of course I wanted it immediately."

Answer: Howard the Duck

Lea starred as Beverly Switzler in "Howard the Duck". Eight performers and three "stunt ducks" collaborated as the title character, Howard T. Duck. Howard, a three-foot duck from a planet in outer space, was accidentally beamed to Earth, where he became Beverly's boyfriend (duckfriend?) and eventually saved the planet from evil aliens. Need I say more? "Howard the Duck" was such a cheesy, overwhelmingly bad film, it has actually attained something of a cult following, much like "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and other classic clunkers.

"Howard the Duck" was ultimately nominated for eight infamous Razzie Awards, including Worst Picture of the Decade for the 1980s. The film "won" four Razzies in 1987: Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Visual Effects, and Worst New Star (for "the six guys and gals in the duck suit").

Answer: Howard Deutch

Howard Deutch ("Pretty in Pink", "The Great Outdoors", "Grumpier Old Men") and Lea Thompson first met during pre-production for "Some Kind of Wonderful". The role of Amanda Jones was originally offered to actress Molly Ringwald, but she declined. Co-star Eric Stoltz had previously appeared with Lea in another teen film (Cameron Crowe's "The Wild Life", released in 1984), and he recommended her for the part of Amanda. Lea initially declined the role, but Howard persisted and she reconsidered, eventually accepting the part. Her performance earned Lea the 1988 Young Artist Award for Best Young Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama.

Lea and Howard fell in love during the filming of "Some Kind of Wonderful", and were married in 1989; they have two daughters, Madeline and Zoey. Since their marriage, they have continued to collaborate on occasional projects, including "Article 99" (1992) and "Electric" (2002). Howard also directed several episodes of Lea's comedy series, "Caroline in the City".

Answer: Cartoonist

Caroline Duffy - a somewhat sheltered native of Peshtigo, Wisconsin - moved to New York City to pursue her dreams and career. An accomplished cartoonist, Caroline penned a daily syndicated strip, "Caroline in the City", drawing from her own life experiences (and those of her friends) in the Big Apple for material.

Caroline's colorist, Richard Karinsky, was a dark, brooding, "serious artist", who despised the fact that he needed a job coloring-in comic strips to make ends meet. Caroline hired Richard during the first episode of the series, and for most of the next four seasons, it was obvious to just about everyone but Caroline and Richard that they were madly in love with each other. Eventually, they discovered "sincere amore" ... "the kind of love you never have to question".

Answer: For the People

In "For the People", Lea starred as Los Angeles Chief Deputy District Attorney Camille Paris. Camille was a liberal-minded prosecutor, constantly at odds with her conservative boss, District Attorney Lora Gibson (Debbi Morgan). "For the People" was a short-lived series; it was cancelled after just a single season, and filmed only 18 episodes.

Answer: Cabaret

Lea starred in the 2000 revival of "Cabaret", portraying Sally Bowles both at Studio 54 on Broadway, and on tour. Lea discussed her role during a May 2000 interview with John Hayes of the "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette", stating, "... this definitely is a different kind of part than most people are used to seeing me in. It's a wild production. Sally Bowles is kind of a trollop, and [directors Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall] use the songs and the set and costumes to be very provocative. The girls all have torn stockings and bruises, and the makeup is kind of wild. I think he's trying to be trashy, to show the bottom of Berlin in that time before Hitler came to power -- the decadence, the desperation of these people."

Lea's other stage credits have included the Los Angeles production of "The Vagina Monologues" at the Canon Theater in Beverly Hills, and "The Illusion" at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.