Courtney Thorne-Smith Biography

Courtney got the part, and she and her sister moved to L.A. (bye bye Allegheny). She appeared in lots of movies, her first movie (Welcome to 18) being her worst acting experience ever, and her second movie (Lucas) being her greatest movie experience.

Being really shy, acting was a way to get attention, but by the time Courtney was 19 she was in therapy trying to deal with shattered expectations. "What happened is that all of my dreams came true, and it didn't fix anything. I was still scared, and still sad. You need the same things to make you truly happy and fulfilled when you're famous as you do when you're not, but they're more difficult to find, because you forget to look."

One of Courtney's first TV gigs was a recurring role on L.A. Law, playing Harry Hamlin's "Laker Girl" girlfriend. "I was told she was an inspiring actress. Then, the first day, I walk into the wardrobe, and there's this tiny leotard. 'Oh', they told me, 'she's a Laker Girl.' I had no idea, but there I was."

Courtney's first regular role on a TV series was in Fast Times. The series lasted about six weeks, from March 5, 1986 to April 23, 1986. After that, Courtney starred in the Mark Harmon epic Summer School, the movie Revenge of the Nerds II, the TV movie Infidelity, the sitcom Day By Day, and the romantic film Side Out.

Courtney got her first big break in 1992, playing the tormented Alison Parker on Melrose Place. She managed to maintain some self-respect in a show where the writing wasn't really... well, ya know. "On Melrose nobody thought we got the joke! They would look at us sadly. On Melrose you'd say 'I can't believe you killed my lover! I'm moving upstairs!' It was so funny. Daphne Zuniga and I would start scenes, and we'd go, 'OK, wait: Are we friends? Did I just make you lose your baby? Did you just steal my boyfriend?' We weren't kidding; we'd have to figure it out."

Courtney had a both on-and-off screen romance with Andrew Shue (Billy), but Melrose Place's cutest couple split after a year. "We were two nice kids under this incredible stress. I don't know if I could have gotten through it without him. We had a light, fun, sweet relationship. We'll always have a close bond." (Hmmm, that might be true, but where was Andrew on Courtney's wedding day? She did go to HIS wedding...)

Towards the end of her days on Melrose Place, Courtney got great reviews for the TV movie Beauty's Revenge aka Midwest Obsession. Courtney played a psychotic midwestern beauty queen who killed a girl (played by Tracy Gold) in order to be with Gold's character's boyfriend.

When Courtney left a five-year long run on Melrose Place (Alison had turned into a dead-end character, and Melrose Place had turned into a show full of over-the-top silliness), her plan was to take a year off. But she agreed to do David E. Kelley's hourlong show Ally McBeal instead. She got to play Ally's co-worker Georgia Thomas, the smart and sexy lawyer who was married to Ally's only true love: a guy named Billy (call it deja-vu). Once again, she found herself playing 'normal' in a room full of wacko's.

"I get treated differently, which is interesting. With Ally, women treat me almost like a peer, like they relate to Georgia quietly, like they seem to feel her pain. Whereas with Alison, people were yelling at me to get it together, with Georgia, there's just a ton of compassion. Whatever show I'm on, people are mad at Billy."

Her character was created to be in the first season only, but since Courtney was so great (yeah, yeah, yeah) her stay stretched into a three-season one. May 2000, Courtney finally left the show. Her character had (once again !!!) reached a dead-end.

In 1999 Courtney became the newest spokeswoman for Almay cosmetics, being the face of their new line of make-up 'Skin Stays Clean'. "I do nothing but yammer at my friends about how they have to try it. Luckily Almay sends me big boxes of stuff so I can hand it all out. I'm very popular all of a sudden among all my friends." Courtney also had two feature films coming out that year: Venus Conspiracy and Chairman of the Board.

On June 2, 2000 Courtney married her boyfriend of three-years (and fianc� of ten-months), genetic scientist Dr. Andrew Conrad (another Andy, life is full of surprises). Their top-secret five-day wedding extravaganza took place on the Hawaiian island of Lanai. The couple was determined to keep their wedding secret, they even cooked up a cover story that they weren't really going to marry until October (and People magazine bought it!). They flew in fifty close friends and family-members for a vacation which included sightseeing, sailing trips, yoga classes and special dinners. A local minister performed the ceremony on a cliff overlooking the ocean. Courtney and Andrew wrote their own vows. Courtney said: "I love Andrew more than anyone else in the world. I want to grow old with him". The couple delayed their honeymoon due to hectic work schedules.

Courtney met the man of her dreams after a dinner party arranged by her sister and brother-in-law, after she'd sworn to never (ever) go on a blind-date. "As an actress, a blind date isn't reality. It isn't blind for them. It's blind for me. It's not fair. And my brother-in-law, who is so uninvested in anything romantic, wanted to set me up, and only for him would I do it. Because it was just so odd that he would be trying at all."

Anyway, it turns out that Andrew got rained in, and couldn't make it, but his best friend talked about him for hours. By the end of the dinner, Courtney agreed to give up her phone number. She and Andrew talked on the phone for two weeks before actually meeting. By that time Courtney was totally in love. "I thought, 'What monster could open the door that would make this fall apart?' But he opened the door and he was Andy. The only problem is that he looks too much like me. I've always dated my physical opposite, and I prided myself on that. But Andy looks like me. We're just going to have big white-haired kids with great big jaws."

AWARDS: 2000: Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, Ally McBeal. 1999: Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, Ally McBeal. 1998: Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series, Ally McBeal.

Hubby Andrew Conrad grew up in Malibu, and since he has many actor friends (his best friend is Rob Estes), Courtney now spends more time with actors from Melrose Place than she did when she was working on the show. But most of Courtney's life and friends are outside the business. "With my close friends, we talk about reading, therapy yoga, chick stuff. It isn't about work."

Then there's still this little ongoing debate about Courtney's last name. "It's so long, isn't it? Thorne-Smith-Conrad. I think it's romantic to take Andy's name, but Courtney Conrad is a little perky. And he calls me Corky. No one can ever call me Corky Conrad. I just can't go there. But I think Smith-Conrad is a really beautiful name."

Courtney is now being courted for her own sitcom series for next fall, but she will also re-occur in Ally McBeal's fourth season. Courtney is a huuuuge dog-lover. She and husband Andrew Conrad, Director of Research and Development of the National Genetics Institute in Los Angeles, have a beachhouse in Malibu, which they share with "about 500 pounds of dogs": Ed and George (hers) and Max and Buzz (his). The couple recently purchased a plot of land for around $1 million overlooking the Challenge golf course on Lanai. "We want to build someplace really comfortable, someplace that has enough rooms for family and friends. That, is the plan."