MOST Magazine Celebrity OCT'15 ISSUE NO.1 | Page 71

www.jeanlouisakelly.com

CLASSIC FILM STAR of UNCLE BUCK and

MR HOLLAND’S OPUS
ACTRESS // SINGER // DANCER of STAGE // FILM // TELEVISION

By Denise Smith

A

t fifteen, Jean Louisa Kelly was living the dream. A Broadway
baby, she was starring in the Tony Award-winning Sondheim classic,
Into the Woods, living in the village in New York, and taking the
subway to school a couple days a week. On Sunday nights after
the matinee, she would take the Amtrak train up to New England
to see her family and then return to New York Tuesday morning
for the show. This was a strong start for this captivating talent.
Growing up in a small town in Massachusetts, New York was
a culture shock. Her mother taught her how to use the subway as
she was learning it herself. “It was probably as scary for my mother
as it was for me.” Her mother was a piano teacher who taught Jean
Louisa and her siblings to read music. Even though her home town
was small, it was an amazing source of talent for a creative young
person. “I had wonderful teachers in voice and dance, and we had
a strong theater community.” When the Irish beauty looks back,
she sees how fortunate she was to grow up in a cocoon of rural
beauty with its wonderful cultural engagements.

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