Kate Capshaw

Kathleen Sue Spielberg, known professionally as Kate Capshaw, is an American visual artist, producer, and retired actress. Born on November 3, 1953, she is best known for her role as Willie Scott in the 1984 feature film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, directed by Steven Spielberg. In addition to her career in film and television, she later established a practice as a painter and portrait artist.

Born Kathleen Sue Nail, she is the daughter of Edwin L. Nail, an airline employee of Irish descent, and Beverly Nail. In January 1976, she married marketing manager Robert Capshaw, with whom she had a daughter, Jessica Capshaw. Following their divorce in 1980, she retained the surname Capshaw for her professional acting career.

Capshaw moved to New York City to pursue acting and landed her initial role on the soap opera The Edge of Night. After auditioning for a minor part in the film A Little Sex, she was cast as the leading lady, leading her to leave her television role. She subsequently appeared in the 1984 films Dreamscape and Windy City.

In 1984, Capshaw gained wide public visibility playing Willie Scott opposite Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Throughout the late 1980s and 1990s, she appeared in a series of feature films, including Power and SpaceCamp in 1986, The Quick and The Dead in 1987, and Black Rain in 1989. Her subsequent screen credits include Love Affair, Just Cause, The Locusts, and The Alarmist. In 1999, she produced and starred in the feature film The Love Letter. Capshaw's final screen acting role was in the 2001 television film A Girl Thing.

In 2009, Capshaw began studying visual arts, focusing on drawing, painting, and portraiture, with an emphasis on portraits of homeless youth. Three of her portrait works were named finalists in the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery's Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition in 2019 and featured in the exhibition The Outwin 2019: American Portraiture Today.

Capshaw's artwork has since been presented in major museums and exhibitions. In 2024, she held a solo exhibition titled Kate Capshaw: Exclusive Tonsorial Services at the Pérez Art Museum Miami, inspired by Miami-Dade County barber and community leader Sergei Grant. Her 2022 portrait of Steven Spielberg, titled The Picture Maker, was commissioned by the National Portrait Gallery and entered its permanent collection in 2025. In 2026, her painted portrait of former White House chef Tafari Campbell was included in the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, Illinois.

Capshaw married filmmaker Steven Spielberg on October 12, 1991, in civil and Orthodox ceremonies after converting to Judaism. The couple's family includes seven children: Jessica, Max, Theo, Sasha, Sawyer, Mikaela, and Destry.