Jill Schoelen
Known For
Acting
Born
1963-03-21 in Burbank, California, USA
Biography
Jill Marie Schoelen (born March 21, 1963) is an American actress. A more unconventional husky-voiced "scream queen" heroine of the 1980s was Jill Schoelen, daughter of well-known fashion designer Dorothy Schoelen. Born and raised in Burbank, she studied at the Acting for Life Theatre in Burbank and started off on TV as a teen in the Fame-influenced TV pilot called Best of Times (1981) (TV) starring the up-and-coming Nicolas Cage and Crispin Glover. She gained in experience with a number of innocuous films geared mostly toward the young, including D.C. Cab (1983), Thunder Alley (1985) and Hot Moves (1984). The dark-eyed, black-haired pretty with the trademark bangs wouldn't find her horror niche until hooking up with Wes Craven and his TV movie Chiller (1985) (TV). From there she scored big with the cult shocker The Stepfather (1987) wherein she played the resourceful stepdaughter terrorized by the lecherous, meek-appearing Terry O'Quinn as the title monster. The sleeper hit put Jill on the map with a seemingly solid future, continuing on with The Phantom of the Opera (1989), this time keeping company opposite Freddy Krueger inhabiter Robert Englund as her deranged pursuer. But a few bumps in the road with such lowgrade fodder as Curse II: The Bite (1989), Cutting Class (1989) and Popcorn (1991) put a permanent damper on her career, despite coming back with a bit of grit in the thriller TV movie When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) (TV). Her object-of-a-stalker days behind her after filming Not Again! (1996), she settled comfortably back and raised two children with husband/musician/composer Anthony Marinelli.
Most Known For
Murder, She Wrote
as Flora Gerakaris
Little House on the Prairie
Diagnosis: Murder
as Becky Garfield
T. J. Hooker
as Kelly Hobbs
Trauma Center
as Leslie
Stereo-Vision
as Katherine Barrows
Hot Moves
as Julie Ann
Hell Town
as Shelley
Shattered Spirits
as Allison
The Stepfather
as Stephanie Maine
Sara
Popcorn
as Maggie
Cutting Class
as Paula Carson
The Heights
Babes in Toyland
as Mary Piper / Mary Contrary
There Goes My Baby
as Babette
Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story
as Self
When a Stranger Calls Back
as Julia Jenz
The Phantom of the Opera
as Christine Day
D.C. Cab
as Claudette