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Amy Steel

Amy Steel is an American film, television and voice actor whose screen career is closely associated with one of the slasher genre’s most appealing survivors. Born in Pennsylvania on May 3, 1960, Steel began working on television in 1980, appearing as Peggy Warner on All My Children and later playing Trudy Wilson on Guiding Light. Her film debut came with a supporting role as Allison in the little-seen 1981 comedy Fat Chance. That same year, Steel found her breakthrough as Ginny Field in Steve Miner’s Friday the 13th Part 2. An aspiring child psychologist forced into a confrontation with Jason, Ginny gave Steel a role with more resourcefulness and personality than the genre often allowed. IGN critic Eric Goldman later described her as one of the most appealing lead characters in the series. Miner considered continuing Ginny’s story in Friday the 13th Part III, but Steel declined the sequel after an exhausting, largely nighttime shoot and later said she regretted the decision because she liked how the character had been written. Steel returned to horror in a different key as Kit in Fred Walton’s April Fool’s Day, the 1986 black comedy mystery built around a gathering with increasingly sinister consequences. She followed it with the role of environmental scientist Penny in the 1987 comedy Walk Like a Man, appearing alongside Howie Mandel and Christopher Lloyd. Her television work ranged widely, with roles in Family Ties, CHiPs, The A-Team, For Love and Honor, China Beach, Home Improvement, Diagnosis: Murder, American Gothic, Chicago Hope, Millennium and JAG. She also appeared in television films including Women of San Quentin, First Steps and Perry Mason: The Case of the Reckless Romeo. After playing Claire Goodman Isenberg in 2003’s A Time to Remember, Steel took an extended break from acting and became a psychotherapist. She returned to the screen in the 2014 anthology horror film Tales of Poe and later made a voice cameo as Dr. Ginny Field in the 2021 fan film Jason Rising.