Elisabeth Shue Net Worth

What Is Elisabeth Shue's Net Worth?

Elisabeth Shue is an American actress who has a net worth of $20 million. That is a combined net worth with her husband, director Davis Guggenheim, whom she married in 1994.

Elisabeth Shue became one of the most recognizable actresses of the 1980s through roles in "The Karate Kid," "Adventures in Babysitting," "Cocktail," and the two "Back to the Future" sequels. She later earned the strongest reviews of her career for playing Sera, a Las Vegas sex worker who forms a relationship with a suicidal alcoholic, in 1995's "Leaving Las Vegas." The performance earned her Academy Award, Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, as well as an Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead. Shue subsequently appeared in films including "The Saint," "Hollow Man," "Mysterious Skin," "Battle of the Sexes," and "Greyhound." Her major television roles have included Julie Finlay on "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," Madelyn Stillwell on "The Boys," Anne on "On the Verge," and Bonnie Kalanick on "Super Pumped." She also reprised her breakthrough role as Ali Mills on "Cobra Kai."

Early Life

Elisabeth Judson Shue was born on October 6, 1963, in Wilmington, Delaware. Her mother, Anne Brewster, worked as a vice president in the private banking division of Chemical Bank. Her father, James William Shue, was a lawyer, real estate developer, business executive, and unsuccessful congressional candidate.

Shue was raised in South Orange, New Jersey, with her brothers William, Andrew, and John. Her younger brother Andrew Shue later became an actor best known for "Melrose Place" and a successful technology entrepreneur. Their parents divorced when Elisabeth was nine, and she later gained two half-siblings through her father's second marriage.

Elisabeth graduated from Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, in 1981. She attended Wellesley College before transferring to Harvard University. She left Harvard one semester short of graduation to pursue acting full-time but returned years later and completed her bachelor's degree in government in 2000.

Commercials and Early Roles

Shue began acting professionally while she was still a student. She appeared in commercials for Burger King, Hellmann's mayonnaise, DeBeers diamonds, and Chewels gum before moving into television and film.

Her early credits included the 1982 television movie "The Royal Romance of Charles and Diana" and the 1983 drama "Somewhere, Tomorrow." Her breakthrough arrived in 1984 when she played Ali Mills opposite Ralph Macchio in "The Karate Kid." Ali's relationships with Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence provided much of the personal conflict surrounding the film's martial-arts rivalry.

Shue followed the movie with a regular role as Jackie Sarnac on the ABC military drama "Call to Glory." She then appeared in the 1986 horror film "Link" before landing her first major starring vehicle, the 1987 comedy "Adventures in Babysitting." Shue played Chris Parker, a suburban babysitter whose routine evening turns into a chaotic trip through downtown Chicago.

"Cocktail" and "Back to the Future"

Shue's profile continued to rise when she starred opposite Tom Cruise in the 1988 romantic drama "Cocktail." She played Jordan Mooney, a wealthy artist who becomes involved with Cruise's ambitious bartender character.

She was then cast as Jennifer Parker in "Back to the Future Part II," replacing Claudia Wells, who had played the character in the original film. Shue appeared opposite Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd in both "Back to the Future Part II" and "Back to the Future Part III," which were filmed back-to-back.

In 1990, Shue made her Broadway debut in "Some American Abroad." She returned to film the following year with roles in "The Marrying Man" and the ensemble comedy "Soapdish." Her early 1990s credits also included "Heart and Souls," "Twenty Bucks," "Radio Inside," and the television series "Dream On."

"Leaving Las Vegas"

Shue achieved the greatest critical success of her career with the 1995 drama "Leaving Las Vegas." Directed by Mike Figgis, the film starred Nicolas Cage as Ben Sanderson, an alcoholic screenwriter who travels to Las Vegas intending to drink himself to death.

Shue played Sera, a sex worker who accepts Ben without trying to prevent his self-destruction. The role was a major departure from the upbeat, girl-next-door characters that had defined much of her earlier career.

"Leaving Las Vegas" received four Academy Award nominations. Cage won Best Actor, while Shue was nominated for Best Actress. She also received Golden Globe, BAFTA, and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations and won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Continued Film Career

Following "Leaving Las Vegas," Shue pursued a wide range of dramatic, comedic, and genre roles. She starred in the 1996 thriller "The Trigger Effect" and appeared in Woody Allen's "Deconstructing Harry" alongside Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Kirstie Alley.

In 1997, she played scientist Emma Russell opposite Val Kilmer in the action thriller "The Saint." Her other late-1990s films included the neo-noir "Palmetto," the period comedy-drama "Cousin Bette," and "Molly," in which she played an autistic woman who undergoes an experimental medical procedure.

Shue entered the 2000s with a leading role opposite Kevin Bacon in the science-fiction thriller "Hollow Man." She subsequently appeared in "Tuck Everlasting," "Mysterious Skin," "Hide and Seek," "Dreamer," and "First Born."

In 2007, Shue starred in and produced "Gracie," which was directed by Guggenheim and developed with her brothers Andrew and John. The movie was partly inspired by Elisabeth's experience playing soccer on boys' teams and by the death of her older brother William, who died in an accident in 1988. Shue played the mother of a teenage girl fighting for the right to join her school's boys' soccer team.

She later played a fictionalized version of herself in the 2008 comedy "Hamlet 2." Her subsequent film credits included "Don McKay," "Piranha 3D," "House at the End of the Street," "Chasing Mavericks," and "Hope Springs."

(Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images)

"CSI" and Television Career

In 2012, Shue joined the regular cast of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" as blood-spatter specialist Julie Finlay. The character had previously worked with Ted Danson's D.B. Russell in Seattle before joining the Las Vegas crime laboratory.

Shue remained with the series until 2015. Julie was attacked during Shue's final season, and the 2015 series finale subsequently revealed that she had died from her injuries.

In 2019, Shue joined Amazon's superhero satire "The Boys" as Madelyn Stillwell, a senior executive at Vought International who manages the company's unstable collection of corporate superheroes. She later reprised the role in the animated anthology "The Boys Presents: Diabolical" and the spinoff series "Gen V."

Shue returned to the role of Ali Mills in the third season of "Cobra Kai." The appearance reunited her with Ralph Macchio and William Zabka and gave Ali a more satisfying conclusion than the brief explanation of her absence from "The Karate Kid Part II."

She also starred opposite Julie Delpy in the Netflix comedy-drama "On the Verge" and served as an executive producer. In 2022, Shue played Bonnie Kalanick, the mother of Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick, in Showtime's "Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber."

Her later film roles included the Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs drama "Battle of the Sexes," the remake of "Death Wish," the Tom Hanks World War II thriller "Greyhound," and the family comedy-drama "The Good Half."

Personal Life

Shue married director and producer Davis Guggenheim in August 1994. Guggenheim directed the Academy Award-winning climate documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" as well as "Waiting for 'Superman,'" "He Named Me Malala," and the U2 documentary "From the Sky Down."

The couple has three children: Miles William, Stella Street, and Agnes Charles. Shue has generally kept her family life private while continuing to work in film and television.

Real Estate

Shue and Guggenheim previously owned a Spanish-style home near the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. Built in 1926, the two-story residence measured just under 2,000 square feet and contained three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms.

The gated property also featured hardwood floors, a fireplace, a tiled courtyard, a swimming pool, and a detached office and studio. After owning the house for slightly more than a decade, the couple sold it in 2004 for approximately $1.3 million, exceeding their asking price of roughly $1.2 million.

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