Kate Capshaw

Kate Capshaw

Active - 1982 - 2018  |   Born - Nov 3, 1953 in Fort Worth, Texas, United States  |   Genres - Drama, Romance, Comedy

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Biography by AllMovie

Though she'd always harbored a hankering to become an actress, Kate Capshaw put these plans in mothballs to earn a master's degree in special education at the University of Missouri. She taught exceptional-ed classes for two years before finally heading to New York to seek out acting jobs. Capshaw played small roles in commercials and soap operas, then in 1982 made her film bow in A Little Sex. Two years later, she was cast as the heroine in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and while playing the female character in the "Indiana Jones" series, she met producer/director Steven Spielberg , whom she would eventually marry in 1991. Capshaw's roles improved with each subsequent film; in 1995 she was showered with critical acclaim for her performance in How to Make an American Quilt. In addition to her theatrical-film work, Kate Capshaw has been seen in such made-for-TV movies as Missing Children: A Mother's Story (1982), Her Secret Life (1987) and Showtime's Duke of Groove (1996); she was also a regular on the brief 1993 series Black Tie Affair.

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Factsheet

  • Was a special-education teacher in Missouri before she decided to pursue acting.
  • Made her film debut in 1982's A Little Sex opposite Tim Matheson. 
  • Played the female lead opposite Harrison Ford in 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
  • Converted to Judaism prior to marrying Steven Spielberg.
  • Starred in the short-lived NBC detective series Black Tie Affair.
  • In 1997, played the on-screen mother to real-life daughter Jessica in The Locusts.