Appealing, allAmerican actress who was first noticed in a series of Burger King TV commercials. She first appeared on screen as Tom Cruise's girlfriend in All the Right Moves (1983). She played cute cheerleader types in Jaws 3-D (also 1983), Going Undercover, The Wild Life, Red Dawn (all 1984), and SpaceCamp (1986), but assumed more challenging roles as well: She donned heavy makeup to play the middle-aged mother of Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future (1985, reprising the role with less screen time in the 1989 and 1990 sequels), walked a fine line portraying a potentially unsympathetic character in the teen-angst exercise Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), played the youngish aunt of Lukas Haas in the WW2-era The Wizard of Loneliness (1988), and tackled topical comedy with a racy edge in Casual Sex? (also 1988). Recent credits include Nightbreaker (1989 telefilm), Article 99 (1992), Dennis the Menace (1993, as Dennis' mom), Stolen Babies (a highprofile 1993 telefilm) and The Beverly Hillbillies (also 1993, as a femme fatale with a fake French accent). In time, she may even live down Howard the Duck (1986).