The best Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s action movies
Mary Elizabeth Winstead was born on November 28, 1984, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, to Betty Lou (née Knight) and James Ronald Winstead, and is the youngest of five children. Her grandfather was a cousin of actress Ava Gardner. When she was five years old, her family moved to Sandy, Utah. She attended Peruvian Park Elementary, where she took advanced classes. She studied dance in a Joffrey Ballet summer program in Chicago, and sang in the International Children's Choir. During her youth, Winstead initially hoped to pursue a career as a ballerina and appeared in local ballet productions. As she entered her teens, she was forced to quit ballet due to her height. She later stated, "I realized pretty early on that I was already too tall by the time I was 13... you know, your body has to stay that way for your entire life, and it's pretty hard on your muscles and your bones." Realizing that a dance career was unlikely, Winstead turned to acting. As she was still a teenager at the time, this required her to be homeschooled through most of high school.
Further success came with her roles as John McClane's daughter Lucy Gennero-McClane in Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010). Her critically acclaimed-performance as an alcoholic struggling with sobriety in the Sundance drama Smashed (2012) was followed by a series of roles in other well-received independent films, including The Beauty Inside (2012), The Spectacular Now (2013), Faults (2014), Alex of Venice (2014) and Swiss Army Man (2016). Winstead continued her Scream Queen roles in the body horror film The Thing (2011), as Mary Todd Lincoln in the fantasy horror film Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012) and in the psychological horror thriller film 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016).
She reprised her role as Lucy Gennero-McClane in A Good Day to Die Hard (2013) and returned to television with roles in the supernatural drama series The Returned (2015), the political satire/science fiction comedy series BrainDead (2016), the period medical drama series Mercy Street (2016–17) and the black comedy/crime drama anthology series Fargo (2017). Her recent roles include the comedy drama All About Nina (2018), the action thriller Gemini Man (2019) and as the Huntress in Birds of Prey (2020).
Since 2013, Winstead has performed as half of the music duo Got a Girl, with Dan the Automator.
Kate
6.2/10
After she's irreversibly poisoned, a ruthless criminal operative has less than 24 hours to exact revenge on her enemies and in the process forms an unexpected bond with the daughter of one of her past victims.
Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)
6.1/10
Harley Quinn joins forces with a singer, an assassin and a police detective to help a young girl who had a hit placed on her after she stole a rare diamond from a crime lord.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
5.9/10
President Lincoln's mother is killed by a supernatural creature, which fuels his passion to crush vampires and their slave-owning helpers.
A Good Day to Die Hard
5.2/10
Iconoclastic, take-no-prisoners cop John McClane, finds himself for the first time on foreign soil after traveling to Moscow to help his wayward son Jack - unaware that Jack is really a highly-trained CIA operative out to stop a nuclear weapons heist. With the Russian underworld in pursuit, and battling a countdown to war, the two McClanes discover that their opposing methods make them unstoppable heroes.
Gemini Man
5.7/10
Henry Brogan is an elite 51-year-old assassin who's ready to call it quits after completing his 72nd job. His plans get turned upside down when he becomes the target of a mysterious operative who can seemingly predict his every move. To his horror, Brogan soon learns that the man who's trying to kill him is a younger, faster, cloned version of himself.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
7.6/10
As bass guitarist for a garage-rock band, Scott Pilgrim has never had trouble getting a girlfriend; usually, the problem is getting rid of them. But when Ramona Flowers skates into his heart, he finds she has the most troublesome baggage of all: an army of ex-boyfriends who will stop at nothing to eliminate him from her list of suitors.
Live Free or Die Hard
7.1/10
John McClane is back and badder than ever, and this time he's working for Homeland Security. He calls on the services of a young hacker in his bid to stop a ring of Internet terrorists intent on taking control of America's computer infrastructure.
Death Proof
7/10
Austin's hottest DJ, Jungle Julia, sets out into the night to unwind with her two friends Shanna and Arlene. Covertly tracking their moves is Stuntman Mike, a scarred rebel leering from behind the wheel of his muscle car, revving just feet away.
Grindhouse
7.5/10
Two full-length feature horror movies written by Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez put together as a two-film feature. Including fake movie trailers in between both movies.
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World - 10th Anniversary Reunion Table Read
8.4/10
The cast of 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' reunite to do a table read of the cult classic film 10 years later with Entertainment Weekly.
Cost of Living
6.9/10
Two young security guards at an unusual corporation have a bad night.
