Mary Stuart Masterson

About Mary Stuart Masterson

Mary Stuart Masterson (born June 28, 1966) is an American actress best known for her roles in such films as Some Kind of Wonderful, Fried Green Tomatoes, Benny & Joon and Bed of Roses.

Mary Stuart Masterson was born in New York City to writer/director Peter Masterson and actress Carlin Glynn. She has two siblings: Peter and Alexandra Masterson, who are both involved in the entertainment industry. As a teen, she attended Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Training Center in upstate New York with actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Jon Cryer. Later, she attended schools in New York, including eight months studying anthropology at New York University.

Masterson's first movie appearance was in the original movie The Stepford Wives (1975) at the age of eight. Rather than continue her career, she chose to continue her studies, though she did appear in several productions at the Dalton School. In 1985, she returned to the big screen in Heaven Help Us as Danni, a rebellious high school drop-out who runs a soda fountain. She later starred as the tomboyish drumming Watts in the teenage drama Some Kind of Wonderful (1987). As a result, she is loosely connected with the Brat Pack. That same year Francis Ford Coppola cast her in Gardens of Stone where she able to act alongside her parents, who Coppola had hired to act as her on-screen parents for the film. In 1989, she starred as Lucy Moore, a teenage girl giving up her first baby to a wealthy couple, played by Glenn Close and James Woods in Immediate Family. For her work in the film she received a "Best Supporting Actress" award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures.