Best TV actors from each state
By Jeremy Dick
Lea Thompson (Minnesota)
As a child living in Rochester, Minnesota, Lea Thompson was an aspiring ballet dancer. She won several notable ballet scholarships and danced professionally by her mid-teenage years. But when Mikhail Baryshnikov himself supposedly told her she didn’t have the right body to be a top ballerina, it struck a chord. She then changed her focus to concentrate solely on acting.
Chances are you know her well from the Back to the Future film trilogy. Thompson stars as Marty McFly’s mother Lorraine in these films. Movie lovers will always recognize her best from these flicks, but in the following years, Thompson became more of a television star. In the 90s, she had her own sitcom called Caroline in the City. She also had guest spots on many other shows.
Ever since 2011, Thompson has been starring on the drama series Switched at Birth. The show is about two newborn girls unknowingly being switched in the hospital when they were born. When they are teenagers, the mistake is uncovered and the two families get to know each other. One of the girls is deaf, and Thompson plays her biological mother. She uses sign language to communicate to her daughter on the series.