North Carolina native Mary Elizabeth Winstead began training as a ballet dancer as a child, and later studied at Joffrey Ballet School in Chicago. She also studied singing and acting intensively and pursued a successful career on Broadway, appearing in productions like Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Eventually transitioning to the screen, Winstead became an audience favorite when she made a handful of appearances on the soap opera Passions in 1999. She would go on to appear in movies like 2005's Sky High and Final Destination 3, before scoring the role of Lee -- the girl whose friends use her as collateral in order to drive a mint Dodge Charger -- in 2007's Death Proof, part of the double-feature Grindhouse. She played Lucy in Live Free or Die Hard, before taking on the role of Ramona V. Flowers in the quirky 2010 graphic novel adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
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- Is a distant cousin of legendary actress Ava Gardner.
- Attended the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City as a child, and also studied tap and jazz dancing.
- Made her TV debut in a 1997 episode of Touched by an Angel.
- Appeared with Donny Osmond in a late-1990s Broadway production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
- Was nominated in 1999 for Best Performance in a Daytime Series at the Young Artist Awards and for the Hollywood Reporter Young Star Award, for her role on the daytime soap Passions.
- Performed many of her own stunts in the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, explaining that "the idea of a stunt person taking my place was something I didn't want."
- Though she was born in 1984, she considers herself a "vintage junkie" with a special focus on the 1960s.