Even if you didn't quite know her name, if you were a teenager between, say, 1978 and 1987 you probably know Wendie Jo Sperber's face.

Sperber, the actress who played the confidante to "Bosom Buddies" Tom Hanks and Peter Scolari and Michael J. Fox's sister in "Back to the Future," died Tuesday (Nov. 29) after a long fight with breast cancer. She was 47.

The L.A. native's first acting job was in director Robert Zemeckis' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," in which she played a teenager trying to see the Beatles perform on "The Ed Sullivan Show." In addition to the "Back to the Future" movies, her film credits also include "Bachelor Party" (which also starred Hanks), "1941" and, more recently, "Sorority Boys."

She also was a regular on several TV series in the 1980s, most notably "Bosom Buddies," where her character was the only one to know that Hanks and Scolari were passing themselves off as girls so they could live in an apartment building for women -- the only one they could afford. Her other TV work includes the "Private Benjamin" series, "Hearts Afire" and the early FOX show "Women in Prison." She also had a recurring part on ABC's "8 Simple Rules."

After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997, Sperber founded a support network called weSPARK, which offers free counseling and other services to cancer patients and their families.

"The memory of Wendie Jo is that of a walking inspiration," Hanks says in a statement. "She met the challenges of her illness with love, joy and altruism. We are going to miss her as surely as we are all better for knowing her."