The wife of Sean Astin, who played characters in The Goonies and The Lord of the Rings, is producer Christine Harrell. Harrell and Astin have been married since the early 1990s and are the parents of three kids together.
Sean does have the appearance of a Hollywood celebrity who has been in a long-term relationship and is more suitable to be a father. Astin and Christine Harrell work well together to achieve the couple’s objectives.
So how did they become a couple with so much love between them? What is Christine’s tale, and where did it all start for her and her husband? The solutions are further below.
Childhood and Success in Beauty Pageants for Christine Harrell
Christine Louise Harrell was born on September 12, 1967, not far from LaPorte, Indiana.
Nancy Miller and firefighter Frank Harrell’s daughter is Christine. Her actor husband, Sean, describes his father-in-law, Harrell’s father, Frank, as a man who had worked hard his entire life in his book, There and Back Again: An Actor’s Tale.
He was a career firefighter who previously invested most of his family’s emotional capital and his whole life savings in an unsuccessful attempt to open and run a grocery shop. The wife of Astin was raised in Rolling Prairie, Indiana. Her formative years were spent amid the rolling prairies of Indiana.
Harrell attended high school in New Prairie. She was a model and a former contestant in teen beauty pageants. In actuality, she was named Miss Teen Indiana (1984). At age 17, Harrell won the championship.
Christine Harrell (Pinterest)At Her Indiana Home, Christine Harrell Pursues a Modeling Career
The now-54-year-old Ms. Astin initially made an effort to refine her modeling goals in Indiana.
Evelyn LaHaie, a well-known personality from Valparaiso, was her original modeling instructor. She met Joe Jackson and his singing kids, including Michael, who was then 6 years old, in the middle of the 1960s, and it was she who had the idea to rename The Jackson Family the Jackson Five.
Additionally, Evelyn was the one who secured the Jacksons’ performance at her agency’s fashion show at The Big Top department store in Gary, Indiana, just as they were beginning their career as a singing group. At the Hotel Gary in Gary, LaHaie operated her Evelyn School of Charm and Modeling for many years.
Harrel was among the emerging talents she assisted in launching into the forefront. When Harrel attended a modeling audition, LaHaie was a member of the Modeling Association of America’s board of directors.
Left Indiana to Pursue a Career in Acting
Harrell left Indiana and relocated to Los Angeles to start her career in the film and television industry after completing her studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
She attended UCLA while living on the west coast, where she eventually earned a B.A. in history as well as a B.A. in English American literature and culture, according to IMDB. Regarding her acting career in the film and television industry, she started as Elizabeth Dalling’s assistant at Special Artists Agency, where she later rose to become CEO, senior partner, and head of celebrity and international representation.
Sean’s spouse worked as an executive assistant there. Christine produced the 1994 short film Kangaroo Court alongside her spouse in the director’s chair after they got married. Later, the duo received a nomination for an Oscar for the movie Kangaroo Court.
Christine’s husband said in September 2018 that they had spent the previous 10 years creating a feature-length film based on Lois Lowry’s Newbery Medal-winning book Number the Stars. The three parents have yet to provide an update on the project, which was reportedly intended to be Astin’s first-ever feature-length film and directorial effort.
Present Activities of Christine Harrell
As of right now, Harrell serves as vice president and chief financial officer of Los Angeles-based performing arts firm Lava Entertainment.
Her actor spouse serves as CEO and President of the business, where she has worked for more than 20 years.
The native of Indiana was raising her kids and working for one or two community organizations, such as the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles and the local government. She contributed her artistic abilities to the group’s efforts to make the city more beautiful.
Christine Harrell (Pinterest)How did Christine and Sean Astin Meet?
Sean was promoting his 1990 military drama Memphis Belle on a promotional tour.
He was traveling through Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Thailand. He initially had the opportunity to speak with the person he would wed on those trips, though these were not face-to-face conversations.
The Goonies actor claims that while crawling across the Al Rasheed Hotel’s floor to reach a phone, he was watching CNN and listening to Bernie Shaw while relaxing in the bathtub of a posh hotel in Tokyo. The person who answered the phone was Christine, who at the time was employed for a Beverley Hills business agency that had arranged meetings for Astin in Japan.
But the UCLA graduate didn’t meet Sean until late January 1991. Christine was twenty-two at the time, and Sean was nineteen. In his autobiography, the Rudy actor claims that following their initial meeting, Harrell and him became almost immediately inseparable. He claims that they became ideal life partners.
Additionally, they enjoy revealing to others how cozy their codependency was. They lived together, traveled to Asia, backpacked through Europe, and, in Astin’s words, “became madly in love” along the way.
Christine Harrell Welcomed Three Daughters after Marrying Sean
On July 11, 1992, Christine Louise Harrell wed Sean Astin, an actor and the son of John Astin and Patty Duke, at her mother-in-Idaho law’s property.
As previously indicated, they are parents to three girls in all. Alexandra “Ali” Astin, an actress, was Sean and Chris’s first child, born in November 1996. Elizabeth Louise Astin, the couple’s second daughter, was born in August 2002. Harrell and her husband welcomed their youngest daughter, Isabella Louise Astin, in July 2005, three years later.
Isabella Louise, Christine’s daughter, was born a month early. California’s Los Angeles is home to the family. However, they do periodically return to Harrell’s home region of Northwest Indiana.
The Lord of the Rings: Is Christine In It?
Christine has frequently been confused for a member of the cast from her husband’s career-defining movie series, The Lord Of The Rings. She hasn’t received official screen credit as of yet, though.
However, her first child, Alexandra Astin, was the one who appeared in the movie. In Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, she portrayed Elanor Gamgee, Samwise Gamgee’s daughter.
The Harvard alumna Alexandra starred in The Return of the King during its theater run and went to her father’s book signings. She was also participating in the There and Back Again: An Actor’s Tale promotional tour.
As of right now, Alexandria is a budding theater performer who has appeared in many highly regarded productions.
Christine Harrell’s Earnings
While Christine Harrell, the mother of Sean’s three daughters, is undoubtedly an A-list celebrity in Hollywood and wealthy, she is often found working in support roles.
Although no such claims have ever been made on behalf of Lava Entertainment’s CFO, numerous sources do assert that Harrell’s partner’s net worth is over $10 million.
But in any case, Harrell should be OK considering that she is in a prestigious and wealthy position in a very lucrative field of work.
Other Details
When she won the 1962 movie The Miracle Worker’s best actress Oscar, her late mother-in-law Patty Duke—mother—became Sean’s youngest Oscar winner ever. At 69, she passed away in March 2016.
Her spouse was once persuaded to consider baptism by Christine’s grandfather.
Christine’s husband allegedly only earned $250,000 for the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy.