Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy (born June 13, 1962) is an American actress. She made her feature film debut in '' Bad Boys'' (1983) and came to prominence as a member of the Brat Pack with roles in '' Oxford Blues'' (1984), '' The Breakfast Club'' (1985), '' St. Elmo's Fire'' (1985), and '' Blue City'' (1986). She received three Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress for her performances in '' WarGames'' (1983), '' Fear'' (1990), and '' Man's Best Friend'' (1993). For playing a drug-addicted lesbian photographer in '' High Art'' (1998), Sheedy won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. She also starred in the films '' Twice in a Lifetime'' (1985), '' Short Circuit'' (1986), '' Betsy's Wedding'' (1990), '' Only the Lonely'' (1991), and '' Life During Wartime'' (2009), as well as the series '' Single Drunk Female'' (2022–2023).

Early life

Alexandra Elizabeth Sheedy was born in New York City on June 13, 1962, and has a brother and a sister. Her mother, Charlotte (''née'' Baum), is a writer and press agent who was involved in women's and

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' political freedom, freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and ...

movements, and her father, John J. Sheedy Jr., is a

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

advertising executive. Sheedy's mother is Ashkenazi Jewish, and her father is of Irish Catholic background. Her maternal grandmother was from Odessa, Ukraine. Her parents divorced in 1971. She attended the Bank Street School for Children, followed by Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School in New York City, graduating in 1980. She started dancing with the American Ballet Theatre at age six and was planning to make it a full-time career. She gave up dance in favor of acting full time, however, and then started studying with acting teacher Harold Guskin. At age 12 she wrote a book, ''She Was Nice to Mice'', which was published by McGraw-Hill Education and became a best-seller. The story was released in 1976 as a spoken word album on the Caedmon label (TC 1506). On June 19, 1975, she appeared on the game show '' To Tell the Truth'' as herself promoting the novel which was on the adult reading list. At age 18, Sheedy relocated to Los Angeles, California, where she enrolled in the drama department at the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

. Sheedy concurrently began her acting career and intermittently completed three years' worth of courses toward a BFA degree in acting.

Career

Sheedy started acting in local stage productions as a teenager. After appearing in several television films in 1981, as well as three episodes of the television series '' Hill Street Blues'', she made her feature film debut in '' Bad Boys'' (1983), starring Sean Penn, wherein she played Penn's humiliated girlfriend. During the 1980s, she became a member of the Brat Pack, and had roles in popular films such as '' WarGames'' (1983, earning her first Saturn Award nomination), '' Oxford Blues'' (1984), '' The Breakfast Club'' (1985), '' St. Elmo's Fire'' (1986), '' Twice in a Lifetime'' (1985), '' Blue City'' (1986), '' Short Circuit'' (1986), and '' Maid to Order'' (1987). In the 1990s, Sheedy appeared in films such as '' Fear'' (1990), '' Betsy's Wedding'' (1990), '' Only the Lonely'' (1991), and '' Man's Best Friend'' (1993). Fear and Man's Best Friend earned her two more Saturn Award nominations for Best Actress. Sheedy starred alongside Radha Mitchell in the 1998 independent film '' High Art'', about a romance between two women and the power of art. Her performance in ''High Art'' was recognized with awards from the Independent Spirit Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and National Society of Film Critics. In 1999, Sheedy took over the lead role in the off-Broadway production of the musical '' Hedwig and the Angry Inch.'' She was the first female to play the part of the genderqueer Hedwig, but her run ended early amid "mixed" reviews. That same year, she was cast as a lead actress in '' Sugar Town'', an independent film that featured an ensemble cast of actors and musicians. She was reunited with ''Breakfast Club'' co-star Anthony Michael Hall when she became a special guest star on his television show '' The Dead Zone'', in the second-season episode "Playing God", from 2003. Sheedy has also appeared in the 2007 episode "Leapin' Lizards" of '' C.S.I.'', in which she played a woman who murdered her boyfriend's wife while mixed up in a cult. On March 3, 2008, Sheedy was introduced as the character Sarah in the ABC Family show '' Kyle XY''. In 2009, she played the role of Mr. Yang on the USA Network television show '' Psych'' (in the third-season finale), a role that she reprised in the fourth season, fifth season, and seventh season finales. As of 2021, Sheedy has been a professor in the theater department at the City College of New York of the City University of New York in the Hamilton Heights section of New York City. From 2022 to 2023, she played the role of Carol in the Freeform series '' Single Drunk Female''.

Personal life

Sheedy became a vegetarian at the age of 12. Sheedy dated Richie Sambora, Bon Jovi's guitarist, for less than a year in the 1980s. She stated in ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' that the relationship led her to abuse drugs, a claim Sambora denied. In 1985, Sheedy was admitted to the Hazelden Foundation. In the 1990s, she was treated for a sleeping pill addiction; she drew on the experience for her role as a drug-addicted photographer in '' High Art''. On April 12, 1992, Sheedy married actor David Lansbury, the nephew of actress Angela Lansbury and son of Edgar Lansbury. They had a transgender son, Beckett, from whose transition Sheedy says she "learned a lot". In 2008, Sheedy announced that she and Lansbury had filed for divorce. In January 2018, Sheedy tweeted the #MeToo hashtag along with the names of James Franco and Christian Slater, implying that they had been sexually abusive to her. She later deleted the tweets. Franco later stated that he did not know why Sheedy tweeted the accusations.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

Books

* ''She Was Nice to Mice'', McGraw-Hill, 1975, * ''Yesterday I Saw the Sun: Poems'', Summit Books, 1991,

References

External links

* * *
''Salon'' interview
(June 25, 1998)
''New York'' magazine interview
(June 15, 1998)

at the '' Chicago Tribune'' (February 17, 1985)
"The Poetry of Ally Sheedy: A Look Back"
(February 24, 2012) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sheedy, Ally 1962 births 20th-century American actresses 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American writers 21st-century American actresses 21st-century American Jews Actresses from New York City American female dancers American film actresses American people of Irish descent American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent American stage actresses American television actresses Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School alumni Dancers from New York (state) Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead winners Jewish American actresses Living people People from Fire Island, New York USC School of Dramatic Arts alumni