Annabeth Gish, Actress, b. Anne Marie Gish, March 1971, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Born in Albuquerque, Annabeth Gish moved to the acting hotbed of Cedar Falls, Iowa at an early age when her professor father took a job there. She discovered a love for acting when she was eight, starring in school and community theatre projects before being discovered by talent agents who made her a model at the age of 11. Four years later she would get her start in film acting, taking a starring role in the 1986 film Desert Bloom in which she stole the show from Jon Voight and JoBeth Williams with her portrayal of a teen troubled by a bad family life and nearby nuclear testing.
Annabeth's star seemed to be on the rise, and two years later she would fet her first lead role in the film Mystic Pizza. Co-starring with Julia Roberts and Lili Taylor, who were billed at the time as supporting actresses, she presently finds herself almost ignored in television and video promos for the film, which are more interested in pointing out Julia Roberts' presence. A year after Mystic Pizza she would again star in an ensemble cast of young women, this time with Phoebe Cates and Bridget Fonda in Shag. In her role as Caroline Carmichael, Annabeth would find herself now spotlighted as the less than physically perfect specimen amongst a cast of Hollywood's up and coming young talents as her character gets to go by the nickname "Pudge." Due to Bridget Fonda's lineage, the presence of Tyrone Power, Jr. and Darryl Hannah's sister Page Hannah, the film began the lost standing rumor that Annabeth was the granddaughter of Lillian Gish. The rumor has no truth to it.
Since 1988, Annabeth Gish's star seems to have dimmed. She has worked fairly consistently in Hollywood, but has not gained a headlining role since Mystic Pizza. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1993 and tried to take her career on a more high-brow path. She appeared in 1994's Wyatt Earp, portrayed Julie Nixon in Oliver Stone's Nixon, then played fairly prominent roles in the Ashley Judd vehicle Double Jeopardy and the critically acclaimed 1999 film SLC Punk about punkers growing up in a Mormon community in Utah.
New information brought to my attention... Annabeth Gish is apparently did or is doing a stint on The X-Files. Not aware of the details, since I don't understand television (in color anyway), so more details forthcoming as they come across my telegraph wire.
Date and names researched at allmovie.com
Some information taken from my secret notebook:
"Actresses I Would Stalk If I Were Like That"