Biography
Mary Elizabeth Winstead was born on November 28, 1984, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. The youngest of five children, Mary has three sisters and a brother. She describes her mother as her hero.
As a girl, Mary Elizabeth Winstead showed a knack for singing and dancing, and trained for a while at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York. She became interested in acting at an early age. After playing Juliet in a fourth-grade production of Romeo and Juliet, Mary Elizabeth Winstead convinced her mother to find her an agent, and by the time Mary hit her teens, she was appearing on TV shows like Touched by an Angel and Promised Land.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead didn't know it at the time, but her early success may well have been hereditary. Screen legend Ava Gardner is her distant relative: "I really didn't find out until I was older," Mary explained, "and then my family were like, 'Oh, by the way, she's your cousin.'"
mary elizabeth winstead on broadway
By the late 1990s, Mary Elizabeth Winstead was getting regular work, which meant taking a different life path than the typical teenager. She relocated to Los Angeles and was home schooled through most of high school, all the while racking up credits in indie films like The Long Road Home (1999) and onstage in the Broadway production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, starring Donny Osmond.
But it was on television that Mary Elizabeth Winstead spent the next few years honing her skills. Mary Elizabeth Winstead played Jessica Bennett on the soap opera Passions from 1999 to 2000; the following year, she became a regular on Wolf Lake. She appeared in the TV movies Then Came Jones (2003) and Monster Island (2004), and guest-starred on Tru Calling in 2004.
In 2005, Mary Elizabeth Winstead played the young Evelyn in The Ring Two, then took on her most notable role to date as Gwen in the teen superhero comedy Sky High.
mary elizabeth winstead in bobby
Even as Mary Elizabeth Winstead's career was taking off, she kept an eye on her education. Since finishing high school, she has taken two years' worth of college courses online. Meanwhile, Mary's profile only grew as she appeared alongside Peter Falk in Checking Out (2006) and starred in the teen horror movie Final Destination 3 (2006).
Mainstream success
Trying her hand at comedy, she went the independent film route as the Jewish daughter of a large, zany family in the indie feature Checking Out, but her screen time fared better in the more mainstream Walt Disney Pictures confection Sky High, which was both financially and critically successful. She starred as Gwen Grayson, the in-disguise alter ego of the supervillain Royal Pain.
After the exposure Sky High provided, 2006 saw her forge a professional relationship with the creative team of James Wong and Glen Morgan, formerly best known for their memorable contributions to The X-Files. She and her co-star, Ryan Merriman, landed in the path of the grim reaper’s master plan in Final Destination 3. She had failed to land a part in the second film in the trilogy, but found her place in the third instalment, which to this day is the most successful of the trilogy. Morgan and Wong wanted to collaborate with her again and convinced her to appear in their sorority slasher Black Christmas. The film, however, failed with critics and viewers. One day, she inadvertently received a chance to lampoon horror scream queens when The Tonight Show host Jay Leno, unaware of who she was, knocked on her front door and included her in a comedy segment spoofing horror movies.
The same year, she appeared in Emilio Estevez's Bobby, a valentine to the politics and morals of Robert F. Kennedy, which drew moderate critical attention, and became a minor box office success. The film's cast included Laurence Fishburne, Anthony Hopkins, Ashton Kutcher, William H. Macy, Demi Moore, and Sharon Stone, but most of her scenes were with Shia LaBeouf and Brian Geraghty. She and her co-stars were nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture.
Recent & future success
In 2007, she appeared in a pair of high-profile event films. Quentin Tarantino cast her as a well-intentioned but vapid and naïve actress in his high-speed segment of Grindhouse titled Death Proof, his half of a double-billed feature. The film failed to produce ticket sales, but drew critical acclaim. The same summer, hot off the heels of its release, Winstead received another shot at action as Lucy McClane in Live Free or Die Hard alongside Bruce Willis. The film earned over $130 million domestically and drew excellent reviews, making it the highest grossing film that features Mary Elizabeth.
She has recently screen tested for the role of Wonder Woman in the film adaption of Justice League.
She is due to star in Make it Happen, a dance film to be shot in and around Chicago and Winnipeg. It was also announced on May 16, 2008, that Winstead would co-star opposite Michael Cera in forthcoming comic-book adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Filming is due to start in the fall.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead was cast in Bobby (2006), a film based on the assassination of Robert Kennedy, starring Anthony Hopkins, and written and directed by Emilio Estevez. She also reunited with Final Destination director James Wong in the teen horror genre in Black Christmas (2006), a remake of the 1974 Canadian cult classic.
mary elizabeth winstead is named no. 91 in 2008 top 99
Mary Elizabeth Winstead had a busy year in 2007. She appeared in Live Free or Die Hard starring Bruce Willis. She was also seen in Grindhouse: Death Proof and Factory Girl.
With such big movies behind her in 2007, it came as no surprise when Mary Elizabeth Winstead was ranked at No. 91 on AskMen.com's list of the Top 99 Most Desirable Women of 2008.
Showing no signs of slowing down in 2008, Mary Elizabeth Winstead signed on to star in the drama Make It Happen.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead photo set
Mary E. Winstead on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson