Andrew Shue

Andrew Shue (born February 20, 1967) is an American actor, known for his role as Billy on the television series Melrose Place (1992–1998). He is currently on the Board of Directors for Do Something (which he co-founded) and is the co-founder of the social networking website CafeMom.

Biography

Early life

Shue was born in Wilmington, Delaware. His mother, Anne Harms (née Wells), was a bank executive who was the vice president of the private division of the Chemical Banking Corporation. His father, James Shue, is a lawyer and real estate developer who was the president of the International Food and Beverage Corporation and was active in Republican politics, having once unsuccessfully run for the U.S. Senate in New Jersey.

Shue attended Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey. Along with his sister, the actress Elisabeth Shue, he was inducted into the CHS Hall of Fame in 1994. At Dartmouth College, as he was in high school, Shue was a Regional All American soccer player and spent a winter studying and playing soccer in Glasgow, Scotland for Queen's Park FC. Shue received his B.A. in history from Dartmouth College in 1989. After graduating, he visited Zimbabwe where he simultaneously taught high school math and played for the Zimbabwe National Champions, the Bulawayo Highlanders. The Highlanders won the double (both league and cup titles) and Shue was the only white player in the African First Division.

Career

In May 1992, Shue was selected to play Billy Campbell on the Aaron Spelling hit show Melrose Place. He starred opposite Courtney Thorne-Smith, whom he later dated. Andrew stayed on the show for six years, during which Melrose became a smash TV hit. During this time he appeared as a wife beater in the Francis Ford Coppola film The Rainmaker (starring Matt Damon and Claire Danes).

In 1996, while still on Melrose Place, Shue played soccer with the Los Angeles Galaxy Major League Soccer team, recording one assist in 5 games. A 1996 commercial for Sports Center on ESPN has Shue being traded for former Sports Center anchor Charlie Steiner, where Steiner takes his position on Melrose Place and Shue takes his on Sports Center.

Shue worked with his sister Elisabeth, his brother John, and his brother-in-law Davis Guggenheim (the Oscar-winning director of An Inconvenient Truth) on the 2007 feature film, Gracie. This film (which he co-produced and had a minor role in) pays tribute to the Shue siblings' elder brother Will who died in an accident in 1988. The story is loosely based on Elisabeth's childhood when she was the only girl playing on an all-boys soccer team.