Andrew Shue
American popular culture in the 1990s found much of its energy in television drama, a medium that turned a generation of faces into household presences. Andrew Shue, born on February 20, 1967, in Wilmington, emerged from that moment as an actor whose career spanned both the screen and the soccer field.
Shue was educated at Columbia High School before going on to Dartmouth College, a path that placed him among a cohort of performers who arrived in Hollywood with academic foundations behind them. He worked as a television actor and film actor, building a professional profile that drew on his appearance in dramatic series during a period when the genre commanded significant cultural attention. What distinguished his trajectory from that of many of his contemporaries was its breadth: alongside his acting work, Shue played soccer professionally for several years, sustaining a commitment to the sport that ran parallel to his career in entertainment. That combination of occupations — actor, film producer, and association football player — gave his public identity an unusual texture, one not easily reduced to a single line of work.
His work as a film producer added a further dimension to his professional life, suggesting an engagement with the craft of storytelling that extended beyond performance. As a citizen of the United States working primarily in English, Shue operated within the mainstream of American media while carrying a biography that resisted easy categorization. The convergence of athletics and acting in his career placed him in a relatively small company of individuals who sustained serious involvement in both domains simultaneously.
The Library of Congress Name Authority records him under the authorized label "Shue, Andrew, 1967-," a designation that fixes him formally within the archival record of American cultural life. That entry, spare as it is, anchors a career that moved across television, film production, and professional sport — a range of activity that the facts of his life, taken together, make plain.
Quotes by Andrew Shue
The biggest lesson from Africa was that life's joys come mostly from relationships and friendships, not from material things. I saw time and again how much fun Africans had with their families and friends and on the sports fields; they laughed all the time.
I was on Oprah’s show recently talking about the people who impacted me the most. One was a teacher and one was my soccer coach. I didn’t even go into my family, who had the most influence.
I found at an early age the times when I learned the most about myself was when I got thrown out there on a stage in front of a microphone when you didn’t really want to be out there, where you’re kind of afraid.
Unfortunately, there are so many people who live their whole life in a place that is safe and protected and simple and they don’t really have that strength inside to fly.
If I want to continue to build the kind of effort we have with Do Something, being in a public office would help. I wouldn’t rule it out, but it’s not something I feel determined to do.
Winning isn’t everything, but playing and competing and striving and going through things can be a lot of fun and really important. As long as you’re doing it in a way that’s healthy, sports can be an incredible opportunity.
Young people can be the catalyst for starting the effort to redefine what’s important in America.
When we’re young we have a very clear vision of how life is supposed to be, and it all seems very neatly packaged.
If you can get a teen leader in each sector of a student population, you can pull people in. Everybody wants to get involved, but most are too afraid. When they see a person they think is cool leading it, they’re first to join.