Lauren Michael Holly (born October 28, 1963) is an American-Canadian actress. She is known for her roles as Deputy Sheriff Maxine Stewart in the TV series Picket Fences, as Mary Swanson in the 1994 film Dumb & Dumber, as Linda Lee in Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, and as Jenny Shepard on the TV series NCIS. She was married to comic actor Jim Carrey from 1996 to 1997.

Biography

Holly was born in Bristol, Pennsylvania. Her mother, Michael Ann Holly, is an art historian and the Starr Director of Research and Academic Program at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, and former professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Her father, Grant Holly, is a screenwriter and professor of literature at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. She has two younger brothers: Nick and Alexander Innes Holly (1978–1992). Holly was raised in Geneva, New York, and is a 1981 graduate of Geneva High School, where she was a cheerleader. In 1985, Holly earned an undergraduate degree in English from Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Holly, who now lives primarily in Canada with her husband and their three children, became a Canadian citizen in 2008.

In 1992, Holly, her father Grant, and their families established the "A" Fund at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in memory of her brother, Alexander, who Holly said "was a boy filled with dreams, hopes, and plans. Although he was only 14 when he died, he had traveled extensively in Europe and Central America, lived in New York City and Los Angeles, and these experiences produced in him a fascination for architecture and archaeology."

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