Sean Young

Mary Sean Young was born on November 20, 1959 in Louisville, Kentucky. She is the daughter of Lee Guthrie (née Mary Lee Kane), an Emmy-nominated producer, screenwriter, public relations executive, and journalist, and Donald Young, Jr., an Emmy award winning television news producer and journalist. She has Irish, English, and Swiss-German ancestry. She grew up with an older brother Donald Young III and a sister Cathleen Young in Cleveland, Ohio. She attended Cleveland Heights High School, and then transferred to and graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy. A trained dancer, she studied at the School of American Ballet in New York City, and did some modeling. Sean Young began a promising film career by acting in a Merchant-Ivory film Jane Austen in Manhattan (1980) for Academy Award nominated director James Ivory, She followed that up in the comedy hit film Stripes (1981) for Academy Award nominated producer-director Ivan Reitman. Soon, important directors were casting her in their films, such as Garry Marshall in Young Doctors in Love (1982), Academy Award nominee David Lynch in Dune (1984), and Academy Award nominee Ridley Scott in Blade Runner (1982) in what is her most respected film. 1987 was a big year for her, since she appeared in two big movies. Academy Award winner Oliver Stone cast her in the hit film Wall Street (1987) but she clashed openly with him and with co-star Charlie Sheen and her role was drastically cut. However, her other hit film No Way Out (1987), which involved a famous steamy scene in the backseat of a limousine with Kevin Costner, gave her star status. She was at the height of her fame, which led to her being cast as Vicky Vale in Batman (1989). She had an accident while she was training for the film. As a result, she lost the role to Kim Basinger for what turned out to be the biggest hit of 1989. Young's loss didn't stop there. In 1988, she made a flop film with James Woods titled The Boost (1988). Woods accused her of exotic harassment, including leaving a disfigured doll outside his home and leaving scary phone calls to his then-fiancée. Young denied an affair with him or of harassing him, since she was in a long relationship with actor/singer Robert Lujan, whom she had met on a TV mini-series in 1985. They settled out of court, but the bad publicity hurt her career very deeply while Woods remained unscathed. Hollywood producers now saw her as unstable and a loose cannon and stopped considering her for big movies. She was dropped from Dick Tracy (1990) in favor of Glenne Headly. The "Batman" franchise decided to make a sequel to the 1989 blockbuster with Batman Returns (1992), but the producers wouldn't see Young for the role of Catwoman, She was outraged and went on national television, dressed up as Catwoman, and complained about how the producers should have had the courtesy to see her especially since she had been part of the original cast of the first Batman movie before her accident had her being replaced. This stunt, too, turned into a public relations mess, and the role of Catwoman went to Michelle Pfeiffer. Young put on a brave face and gamely moved on to do comedies Fatal Instinct (1993) for director Carl Reiner, and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), the latter's box office success made Jim Carrey a star, who immediately landed the role of the Riddler in the Batman sequel. The film also raised Courteney Cox's profile, since she soon landed the hit TV show "Friends" which made her a household name. Sean thought the film's success would benefit her as well, especially since Academy Award-nominated directors such as Gus Van Sant and Ismail Merchant cast her in their films. However, these films weren't hits, and Hollywood kept giving her lackluster roles in mediocre films. Heartbroken, she married Lujan and moved to Arizona, where she had two sons, but they divorced in 2002. She suffered other losses as well, bearing the painful deaths of her father (in 1995) and her mother (in 2012). There were some bizarre incidents along the way: her heckling a winner at the Director's Guild of America Award show in 2008, her arrest at the 2012 Academy Award after-party when she slapped a security guard. She went to rehab for her alcohol problem and also appeared on the reality show "Celebrity Rehab". Since then, she has mellowed, because she had reconciled with her ex-husband and her children are now grown. She branched out to do stage work, including the Los Angeles production of "Stardust" and the Northport production of "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" for which she received a good review from the "New York Times." In her 50s, she is keeping busy, by acting in several projects and trying to start a directing career. Show less «