- Theresa Saldana
Theresa Saldana (born
August 20 ,1954 ) is an American actress, known for her work in motion pictures and television. She is perhaps best known for her role as Joe Pesci's wife 'Lenore La Motta' in the 1980 feature film "Raging Bull " and in the 1990s television series "The Commish ", for which she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, in 1994.Infobox actor
name = Theresa Saldana
caption =
birthdate =August 20 ,1954
birthplace = Brooklyn,New York Saldana was born in Brooklyn,
New York , the daughter of Divina and Tony Saldana. [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/66/Theresa-Saldana.html Theresa Saldana Biography (1954-) ] ] On March 15, 1982, Saldana was thestalking victim of Arthur Richard Jackson, a 46 year old drifter from Aberdeen, Scotland. Jackson stabbed her in the torso 10 times, with a 5 1/2 inch knife, near the front of her home in broad daylight, almost killing her. The attack was so fierce that he bent the blade in his rage.Saldana could have died had it not been for a
bottled water deliveryman, Jeff Fenn, who came down from the second floor of an apartment building and subdued her attacker. Inspired by the event and encouraged by many, Jeff Fenn, shortly after, entered Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department training, graduated from the academy, and became a deputy sheriff.Saldana recovered after 4 hours of surgery, and a 4-month hospital stay, and eventually founded the Victims for Victims organization. The 1990 anti-stalking law and the 1994 Drivers Privacy Protection Act came into being partly as a result of the attack. The horrific experience inspired Saldana to star in the TV-film "Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story" (1984), recreating that traumatic day.
Jackson attained Saldana's address by hiring a
private investigator to obtain the unlisted phone number of Saldana's mother. Jackson then called Saldana's mother and posed asMartin Scorsese 's assistant, saying he needed Saldana's residential address in order to contact her for replacing an actress in a movie role in Europe. Jackson's approach to Saldana would later inspire stalkerRobert John Bardo to hire a private investigator to contactRebecca Schaeffer .Jackson served a 14-year prison term for both the assault and making threats against Saldana and her rescuer while in prison, and was then extradited to England to be tried for a 1966 robbery/murder. The mentally ill Jackson, who once perceived himself as "the benevolent angel of death", died at 68, of heart failure in a British mental hospital in 2004.
Theresa Saldana continues to act, and has appeared in dozens of roles on TV and films, in the last two decades. She also authored the book "Beyond Survival," a memoir of her experiences after being violently attacked.
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External links
*imdb name|id=0757854|name=Theresa Saldana
* [http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0407/13/lkl.00.html Interview on CNN Larry King Live] with Saldana and Fenn on July 13, 2004.
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