You might not remember Courtney Thorne-Smith by her name but when you see her the ‘aha’ moment might occur since she has been seen in a number of films and TV shows throughout her career. These days she’s more about writing and being the spokeswoman for Almay cosmetics and the Atkins diet, but back in her day she was one of the hottest women on set and was easily one of the young women that a lot of guys would crush on. She’s gotten the chance to star alongside some of the most famous names in Hollywood at one point or another and has been on some truly memorable projects in the past that allowed her to maintain the level of fame that she’d earned early on in her career. There were a few that didn’t really go anywhere of course, as being the romantic interest of Carrot Top didn’t seem like it was bound to help her reputation much when it came to film.
But all in all she’s had a successful career and a life worth living when it comes to film and TV and she’s managed to compile it all into something that she’s made work for her throughout the years.
Here’s a look at just a few things she’s done in the past to jog your memory just a bit further.
Lucas was story about a young man that had virtually nothing but wanted everything. He made up stories about his life and even convinced people he was well off when his best friend knew it wasn’t true but didn’t bother to tell anyone until later in the movie. Courtney had a role in this film but it was more or less a smaller one since she was the girlfriend of the jock played by Charlie Sheen who would eventually get dumped since he fell in love with the same young woman that Lucas was so infatuated with. Unfortunately the girl in question, played by Keri Green, was falling in love with Sheen’s character and Lucas just couldn’t handle it so he tried to be something he wasn’t and ended up getting hurt in the process. It was a coming of age, know who you are and make peace with it kind of movie that was also a feelgood picture that left a big impression on people.
Revenge of the Nerds was made to be campy since there was nothing else it could have possibly been. Where the first one was all about nerd acceptance at Atoms college the second one was about the same kind of acceptance but without as much of the sappy, feelgood emotions that went with it. Instead this one was all about the slapstick and gross out factors that were thrust into the film again and again. Courtney got to play the love interest of Lewis, the always-optimistic but severely gullible individual that turned out to be the leader of the nerds and the guy that they all looked to in their time of need. While it was a funny movie it wasn’t exactly a box office hit. It did become something of a cult classic as the years went on and is still fairly popular today depending on who you ask.
Summer School is one of the best movies of its kind ever made and yet like a lot of those movies it’s been lost to time largely because it was ahead of its time, if you want to be honest about it. A bunch of students that have little if anything in common are unceremoniously thrown into a classroom in order to complete summer school and their teacher, who doesn’t want to be there in the first place, is hardly any help since he too was looking forward to summer vacation and didn’t want to see a classroom until fall. Courtney gets to play a daydreamer in the class that falls hard for the teacher and even goes so far as to try and move in with him. When he tries to let her down easy she’s crushed and becomes quite hurt for a while, at least until he manages to patch things up with her. This movie was something great in a time when a truly good school movie was hard to find.
So to be fair Courtney’s highlights are really more in the past than anything and she was great at what she did back then. Nowadays it seems that she’s taking it easy and pacing herself since she’s been in two TV films most recently and has focused on TV since around 2006-07. She’s in her 50s now and yet she looks great, but the days of playing the lovestruck young woman are kind of over and have given way to the older, more sophisticated lady that has been there, done that.
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