She exposed dance as an infant, & danced professionally per age of Xiv. Lea so won scholarships to several ballet schools. Existence informed by Baryshnikov that she was too thick, nevertheless, she decided to give higher dance in favour an acting career. She moved to New York at the age of Twenty, & performed around the total of Burger King ads in the 1980s.

Her number one important movie role was in All the Right Moves (1983) with Tom Cruise. That was followed by Red Dawn (1984) and The Wild Life (1984). Thompson played Lorraine Baines McFly in the Back to the Future trilogy, when well as a name part in the sitcom Caroline in the City. She besides starred in the film Howard the Duck and SpaceCamp, both considered commercial failures. However from either 1995-1999 Thompson found critical & popular profits when a star of the sitcom Caroline in the City.

Within 2005, Thompson starred in the series of manufactured-for-TV motion-picture show for the Hallmark Channel in which she plays "Jane Doe", an ex-secret agent turned lady of the house world health organization assists the food and drug administration solve mysteries.

She is married to director Howard Deutch. She number 1 met Howard on the placed of her 1st film, Jaws 3-D (1983). It develop ii girl.