Kelly Lynch

Kelly Lynch is an American film and television actress who gained widespread recognition for her performances in feature films during the late 1980s, including Cocktail and Road House. Throughout her career, she has appeared in a wide range of independent movies, Hollywood feature films, and prominent television series.

Lynch was born on January 31, 1959, in Golden Valley, Minnesota, to parents Barbara and Robert Lynch. She attended the Guthrie Theater before beginning her professional career. After college, she worked as a flight attendant and was employed as a model for the Elite modeling agency prior to transitioning into acting.

In 1980, at the age of 20, Lynch was involved in a severe head-on car collision on a Minnesota freeway caused by a motorist driving the wrong way. The crash caused her upper body to go through the windshield and broke both of her legs. She spent nearly a year in the hospital recovering from her injuries and narrowly avoided having both legs amputated.

After taking on several small acting roles, Lynch achieved her breakthrough in the 1988 feature film Cocktail. The following year, she starred opposite Patrick Swayze in the action film Road House (1989) and earned critical acclaim for her role in the Gus Van Sant crime drama Drugstore Cowboy (1989), which earned her a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

During the 1990s, Lynch turned down the role of Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct (1992) and went on to appear in numerous independent and mainstream films. Her credits from this decade include Desperate Hours (1990), Curly Sue (1991), Three of Hearts (1993), Imaginary Crimes (1994), Virtuosity (1995), Heaven's Prisoners (1996), Mr. Magoo (1997), and Homegrown (1998). She received another Independent Spirit Award nomination, this time for Best Supporting Female, for her work in The Beans of Egypt, Maine (1994). In the 2000s, her film appearances included supporting roles in Charlie's Angels (2000), Joe Somebody (2001), and The Jacket (2005).

Lynch has also established an extensive television career. She played the recurring role of Ivan Aycock on the Showtime drama series The L Word from 2004 to 2009, and later portrayed Laurel Cooper on the teen drama 90210 from 2010 to 2011. She went on to portray Meg Bannock in the cable series Magic City (2012–2013) and Deborah Hartsfield in the series Mr. Mercedes (2017).

In her personal life, Lynch has a daughter, Shane, who was born in 1985 from a previous relationship. She married producer and writer Mitch Glazer in 1992, who also created her series Magic City. Since 2014, Lynch and Glazer have owned the Oyler House, a desert retreat designed by architect Richard Neutra.