Lisa Spoonauer

Born in New Jersey, Lisa Spoonauer was taking an acting class at Brookdale Community College in 1992, when Kevin Smith dropped in, looking for actors to be in his first feature film, "Clerks" (1994). Smith thought Spoonauer was the most natural actor in the class and cast her in the film. Her character, Caitlin Bree, was the on again off again girlfriend to Dante Hicks, played by Brian O'Halloran, and their relationship formed one of the centerpieces of the film. The low budget film was a surprise hit, winning praise at both Cannes and the Sundance Film Festivals and finding success at the box office. Spoonauer and Jeff Anderson, who played the other clerk in the film, married, but eventually divorced. Spoonauer went on to appear in only one more film, "Bartender" (1997), and lent her voice to an episode of "Clerks: The Animated Series" (ABC, 2000; Comedy Central, 2002), but found more rewarding work as a restaurant manager and event planner. Lisa Spoonauer died on May 20, 2017 of an accidental painkiller overose while battling cancer and several other diseases.