Career

Capshaw moved to New York City to pursue her dream of acting, landing her first role on the soap opera The Edge of Night. After auditioning for a small role in A Little Sex, she was offered a role of the leading lady, which is when she asked for a dismissal from The Edge of Night. She starred in Dreamscape in 1984. She met film director and future husband Steven Spielberg upon winning the female lead as Willie Scott[citation needed], a spoiled and stubborn sexy American night-club singer and performer opposite Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones) in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), a prequel to Spielberg's Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). In addition, she appeared as Andie Bergstrom, an appealing and stern yet frustrated camp instructor in the 1986 film SpaceCamp, opposite Richard Gere and Gene Hackman in Power (1986), and starred as Susanna McKaskel in The Quick and The Dead (1987) with Sam Elliott. Capshaw also starred in the spy film/romance Her Secret Life.[3]

Capshaw was featured in films throughout the late 1980s into the 1990s, she stars alongside Michael Douglas and Andy García in Black Rain (1989), she stars alongside Sean Connery in Just Cause (1995), alongside Warren Beatty and Katharine Hepburn in Love Affair, and in The Love Letter, she starred and produced the film. She was also featured in the 1997 film The Alarmist with David Arquette and Stanley Tucci. In 2001, she starred in the Showtime Cable Network miniseries A Girl Thing[4], with Stockard Channing, Rebecca De Mornay and Elle Macpherson.[5] Since the TV movie Due East, she has not appeared in film or television.

Personal life

During the production of the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), she became close with director Steven Spielberg, whom she later married. Originally an Episcopalian, she converted to Judaism[6][7] before marrying Spielberg on October 12, 1991. The two were married in both a civil ceremony and an Orthodox ceremony.[8]

There are seven children in the Spielberg-Capshaw family.

• Jessica Capshaw (born August 9, 1976) - daughter of Kate Capshaw's previous marriage to Robert Capshaw
• Max Samuel Spielberg (born June 13, 1985) - son from Spielberg's previous marriage to actress Amy Irving
• Theo Spielberg (born 1988) - son adopted by Capshaw before her marriage to Spielberg, who later also adopted him[9]
• Sasha Rebecca Spielberg (born May 14, 1990, Los Angeles)[10][11]
• Sawyer Avery Spielberg (born March 10, 1992, Los Angeles)[12]
• Mikaela George (born February 28, 1996) - adopted with Steven Spielberg[13]
• Destry Allyn Spielberg (born December 1, 1996)[14]

Capshaw endorsed Democratic U.S. President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012.[15]

Filmography

Film

Television