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Contemporary American actress Kelly Lynch has been playing leads in Hollywood films since the late 1980s, but has yet to make it big. The daughter of show people, she has been acting since age four. Lynch studied dance and then spent two summers training to be a director at the Guthrie Theater. As a young woman she moved to New York to study drama with Sanford Meisner and Marilyn Fried. After briefly encountering the head of the Elite modeling agency in an elevator one day, Lynch was signed up for a $250,000 per year modeling contract. During the three years she modeled, Lynch made occasional TV appearances. She made her feature-film debut playing a bit part in Bright Lights, Big City (1988) but did not play her first leading role until the following year in Road House. Lynch first gained widespread acclaim for her portrayal of a suburban drug addict in Van Sant's Drug Store Cowboy (1989); it was a role she could relate to, as she had broken both legs in an auto accident when she was 20 and had come dangerously close to being addicted to painkillers. Though major stardom has as yet eluded Lynch, she has recently proven herself to be a competent and versatile actress, capable of playing in everything from light romantic comedies to high drama.