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Known For

Jill Schoelen is known for:

  • The Stepfather
    A seemingly mild mannered man -- who has just murdered his entire family -- quickly adopts a new identity and leaves town. After building a new relationship with a widow and her teenage daughter, he struggles to hide his true identity and maintain a grip on reality.
  • Popcorn
    A horror film festival, held in a theater which was once the scene of a tragic fire, turns into a real life horror show.
  • The Phantom of the Opera
    When Christine Day accidentally discovers a rare piece of music, she brings back to life its composer, Erik Destler. Through her fascination with the music she is transported back to Destler's time, 1889, and is thrust into stardom by singing his opera as no one else can. But against the exciting backdrop of the opera lurks a hideous danger—the Phantom—and Christine soon finds herself the object of his relentless desire.

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Biography

Jill Marie Schoelen (born March 21, 1963) is an American actress. A more unconventional husky-voiced "scream queen" heroine of the 1980s was Jill Schoelen, daughter of well-known fashion designer Dorothy Schoelen. Born and raised in Burbank, she studied at the Acting for Life Theatre in Burbank and started off on TV as a teen in the Fame-influenced TV pilot called Best of Times (1981) (TV) starring the up-and-coming Nicolas Cage and Crispin Glover. She gained in experience with a number of innocuous films geared mostly toward the young, including D.C. Cab (1983), Thunder Alley (1985) and Hot Moves (1984). The dark-eyed, black-haired pretty with the trademark bangs wouldn't find her horror niche until hooking up with Wes Craven and his TV movie Chiller (1985) (TV). From there she scored big with the cult shocker The Stepfather (1987) wherein she played the resourceful stepdaughter terrorized by the lecherous, meek-appearing Terry O'Quinn as the title monster. The sleeper hit put Jill on the map with a seemingly solid future, continuing on with The Phantom of the Opera (1989), this time keeping company opposite Freddy Krueger inhabiter Robert Englund as her deranged pursuer. But a few bumps in the road with such lowgrade fodder as Curse II: The Bite (1989), Cutting Class (1989) and Popcorn (1991) put a permanent damper on her career, despite coming back with a bit of grit in the thriller TV movie When a Stranger Calls Back (1993) (TV). Her object-of-a-stalker days behind her after filming Not Again! (1996), she settled comfortably back and raised two children with husband/musician/composer Anthony Marinelli.