Jill Schoelen

A more unconventional husky-voiced "scream queen" heroine of the 1980s was 'Jill Schoelen' (qv), 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 _The Best of Times (1981)_ (qv), starring the up-and-coming 'Nicolas Cage' (qv) and 'Crispin Glover' (qv). She gained in experience with a number of innocuous films geared mostly toward the young, including _D.C. Cab (1983)_ (qv), _Thunder Alley (1985)_ (qv) and _Hot Moves (1984)_ (qv). The dark-eyed, black-haired pretty girl, with the trademark bangs, wouldn't find her horror niche until hooking up with 'Wes Craven' (qv) and his TV movie, _Chiller (1985)_ (qv). From there, she scored big with the cult shocker, _The Stepfather (1987)_ (qv), wherein she played the resourceful stepdaughter terrorized by the lecherous, meek-appearing 'Terry O'Quinn' (qv) 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)_ (qv), this time keeping company opposite "Freddy Krueger" inhabiter, 'Robert Englund' (qv), as her deranged pursuer. But a few bumps in the road, with such low-grade fodder as _The Bite (1989)_ (qv), _Cutting Class (1989)_ (qv) and _Popcorn (1991)_ (qv), put a permanent damper on her career, despite coming back with a bit of grit in the thriller TV movie, _Stimme der Dunkelheit (1993)_ (qv). Her object-of-a-stalker days behind her, after filming _Not Again! (1996)_ (qv), she settled comfortably back and raised two children with her husband, musician/composer 'Anthony Marinelli' (qv).::Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net