• "Sex Drive" Premiere Photo: Mary Elizabeth Winstead

  About - Found Nov. 5, 2009 Mary Elizabeth Winstead Photo - Sex Drive Movie Premiere Mary Elizabeth Winstead Photo>

• Thor, Ninja Assassin, The Crow: Nov 24th Comic Reel

  Comic Book Resources - Found 16 hours ago Starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, release date: 2010 THE HOBBIT TheOneRing.netpoints to a story on inthenews.co.uk in which... 'The Crow' Relaunch Takes Flight - MTV MAKE A SPOT NEXT TO THAT TWILIGHT POSTER, THE CROW REBOOT'S ... - CHUD Producer Ryan Kavanaugh on The Crow Reboot - MovieWeb Crow still continuing - JoBlo Movie Emporium Explore All

  JoBlo Movie Emporium

• Ninja Assasin, Thor, Lobo: Nov 23rd Comic Reel

  Comic Book Resources - Found Nov. 23, 2009 - Starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, release date: 2010 SMALLVILLE has a video featuring a little bit of JSA footage.

• Thor, Turtles Forever, Judge Dredd: Nov 20th Comic Reel

  Comic Book Resources - Found Nov. 20, 2009 Starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, release date: 2010 WEEKEND GETAWAY I was hoping for another Black Cat rumor to round out... Idris Elba added to 'Thor' cast - Digital Spy 'Wire' Star Idris Elba Joins 'Thor' Cast As Heimdall - MTV Idris Elba joins Marvel Studios' "Thor" - Reuters STRINGER BELL CROSSES FROM BAWLMER TO ASGARD - CHUD Explore All

  MovieWeb

• Rob Liefeld's 'Twilight' Connection And Brian Bendis' 'Thor' Set ...

  MTV - Found Nov. 19, 2009 ... was too $$$$ @edgarwright There is an amazing stunt in this fight scene we're editing that people will assume is not Mary Elizabeth Winstead. 'Thor' Set Reports From Joe Quesada And Brian Bendis - MTV Thor, Smallville, Unthinkable: Nov 19th Comic Reel - Comic Book Resources 'Thor' gets his Warrior's Three - Monsters and Critics Explore All

  MTV

• Smallville, Thor, Ninja Assassin: Nov 16th Comic Reel

  Comic Book Resources - Found Nov. 16, 2009 ... talks up the first twenty minutes of the film to MTV News: Starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, release date: 2010 THE HOBBIT... Jaimie Alexander Goes 'Beyond Sore' For 'Thor' Training Regimen - MTV 'Chuck' Star Was Cast In 'Thor,' Confirms Presence Of Warrior Three - MTV Explore All

  MTV

• Kick-Ass, Smallville, Ninja Assassin: Nov 12th Comic Reel

  Comic Book Resources - Found Nov. 12, 2009 Starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, release date: 2010 HIS SOUL IS STILL DANCING Continuing yesterday's theme of movies I'm...

• Iron Man 2, Scott Pilgrim, Kick-Ass: Nov 4th Comic Reel

  Comic Book Resources - Found Nov. 4, 2009 Starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, release date: 2010 KICK-ASS Actors Christopher Mintz-Plasse and Clark Duke tell MTV News...

• Thor, Prince of Persia, Smallville: Oct 30th Comic Reel

  Comic Book Resources - Found Oct. 30, 2009 Starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, release date: 2010 THE LIVING AND THE DEAD Producer Stephen L'Heureux tells Comics2Film at... Hopkins 'cast in Branagh's Thor' - BBC Hopkins 'cast in Branagh's Thor' - BBC Anthony Hopkins cast in 'Thor' - Variety Anthony Hopkins As Odin (Not Brian Blessed) And Grant Morrison's ... - MTV Explore All

• Green Lantern.' All this, plus 'Smallville' trailer, 'Gunplay' and

  Comic Book Resources - Found Nov. 2, 2009 Starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, release date: 2010 DAYS OF THE DEAD So, I had a great Halloween weekend. 'Kick-Ass' Co-Creator Mark Millar To Direct Secret Movie Project? - MTV Millar Making Movie - FilmForce Mark Millar to Direct Superhero Feature! - MovieWeb Explore All

Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Winstead at the premiere of Grindhouse in Austin, Texas, March 2007
Born	Mary Elizabeth Winstead November 28, 1984 (1984-11-28) (age 24) Rocky Mount, North Carolina, U.S.A.
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1997–present

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (born November 28, 1984) is an American actress. Winstead has been called a scream queen, à la Jamie Lee Curtis, because of her roles in the horror films The Ring Two, Final Destination 3, Black Christmas and Death Proof. She has also branched out into other genres, including roles in Sky High, Bobby, and Live Free or Die Hard/Die Hard 4.0. Throughout her career, she was nominated for a Young Artist Award for her work in Passions, and she was part of the cast of Bobby, where she was also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

Early life

Winstead was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the daughter of Betty Lou (née Knight) and James Ronald Winstead. When she was five, her family moved to Sandy, Utah, a Salt Lake City suburb. Her interest in performing art also began to emerge with interests in ballet and acting. As a child, Winstead appeared in the Mountain West Ballet's version of The Nutcracker. Hoping to become a ballerina, at the age of eleven, she received the opportunity to study dance in a summer program of the prestigious Joffrey Ballet School in New York City. There, she studied ballet and jazz dance, but decided to also study acting. Winstead ended up appearing on Broadway during Donny Osmond’s successful run of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. She was also a member of the International Children's Choir during her youth and honed her skills performing at her church.

Career

Winstead began her acting career in the late 1990s, guest starring in episodes of the CBS dramas Touched by an Angel and Promised Land, before being cast as Jessica Bennett in the NBC soap opera Passions, a role she played from 1999 to 2000. She subsequently appeared in the short-lived CBS drama series Wolf Lake (2001-2002), and in the made-for-television film Monster Island (2002). Trying her hand at comedy, she went the independent film route as the Jewish daughter of a large, zany family in the indie feature Checking Out, but her screen time fared better in the more mainstream Walt Disney Pictures confection Sky High, which was both financially and critically successful. She starred as Gwen Grayson, the in-disguise alter ego of the supervillain Royal Pain.

Winstead at the 2006 Comic-Con International, promoting the film Grindhouse.

After the exposure Sky High provided, 2006 saw her forge a professional relationship with the creative team of James Wong and Glen Morgan, formerly best known for their memorable contributions to The X-Files. She and her co-star, Ryan Merriman, landed in the path of the grim reaper’s master plan in Final Destination 3. She had failed to land a part in the second film in the trilogy, but found her place in the third installment, which to this day is the most successful of the trilogy. Morgan and Wong wanted to collaborate with her again and convinced her to appear in their sorority slasher Black Christmas. The film, however, failed with critics and viewers. One day, she inadvertently received a chance to lampoon horror scream queens when The Tonight Show host Jay Leno, unaware of who she was, knocked on her front door and included her in a comedy segment spoofing horror movies. That same year, she appeared in Emilio Estevez's Bobby, a valentine to the politics and morals of Robert F. Kennedy, which drew moderate critical attention, and became a minor box office success. The film's cast included Laurence Fishburne, Anthony Hopkins, Ashton Kutcher, William H. Macy, Demi Moore, and Sharon Stone, but most of her scenes were with Shia LaBeouf and Brian Geraghty. She and her co-stars were nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture.

In 2007, Winstead appeared in a pair of high-profile event films. Quentin Tarantino cast her as a well-intentioned but vapid and naïve actress in his high-speed segment of Grindhouse called Death Proof, his half of a double-billed feature. The film failed to produce ticket sales, but drew critical acclaim. Death Proof is also the second film to feature both Winstead and Kurt Russell. The same summer, hot off the heels of its release, Winstead received another shot at action as Lucy McClane in Live Free or Die Hard co-starring Bruce Willis (who also starred in a segment of Grindhouse, Planet Terror). The film earned over $130 million domestically, making it the highest grossing film that features Winstead.

She has recently screen tested for the role of Wonder Woman in the film adaption of Justice League.¹ She starred in Make It Happen, a dance film. The film went straight to DVD in the US, and gained a small collection in the UK, which eventually led to its financial failure. It was also announced on May 16, 2008, that Winstead would co-star opposite Michael Cera in forthcoming comic-book adaptation Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.² Filming is due to start in early March 2009.³

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mary Elizabeth Winstead

• Mary Elizabeth Winstead at the Internet Movie Database
• Maxim Online interview
• Stumped? Interview
• Passions Central interview (October 28, 1999)
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead at Saturday Night Magazine