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Theresa Saldana

 
Actor: Theresa Saldana
  • Born: 1955 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York
  • Occupation: Actor
  • Active: '70s-'90s
  • Major Genres: Action, Drama
  • Career Highlights: I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story, Thrill Seekers
  • First Major Screen Credit: I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)

Biography

Petite brunette leading lady Theresa Saldana made her first film appearance in 1978's I Wanna Hold Your Hand. In 1980, Saldana was seen as Jake LaMotta's sister-in-law in Raging Bull and as Sophia Loren's sister Maria in the made-for-TV Sophia Loren: Her Own Story. That same year, she showed up in a traditional woman-in-peril role in Defiance. One of the most fervent fans of that film was a drifter by the name of Arthur Richard Jackson, who couldn't stand the thought of his beloved Saldana (whom he'd never met) being subjected to danger and evil. Reportedly, he decided then and there to "save" the actress by killing her himself. On March 15, 1982, Saldana was assaulted and nearly stabbed to death by Jackson. After a long and traumatic recuperation period, she organized Victims for Victims, a support group for other people who'd survived near-fatal attacks from "devoted admirers." Her own story was dramatized in the 1984 TV movie Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story, in which she played herself. More recently, Theresa Saldana co-starred as Rachel Scale, wife of the title character, in the 1990s TV series The Commish, and hosted the Lifetime Cable Network "reality" series Confessions of Crime (1991). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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Theresa Saldana
A woman in a white dress with a black belt is facing and looking left.
Saldana in 1981
Born August 20, 1954 (1954-08-20) (age 55)
Brooklyn, New York

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 'Lenore La Motta', the wife of Joe Pesci's character, in the 1980 feature film Raging Bull. She is also known for bringing the issue of stalking to early attention after surviving an attempted murder by an obsessed fan in 1982.

Contents

Early life

Saldana was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Divina and Tony Saldana.[1]

Stalking incident

On March 15, 1982, Saldana was the stalking victim of Arthur Richard Jackson, a 46-year-old drifter from Aberdeen, Scotland. Jackson became attracted to Saldana after seeing her in the 1980 film Defiance.[2][3] He 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 as Martin Scorsese's assistant, saying he needed Saldana's residential address in order to contact her for replacing an actress in a film role in Europe.

Jackson approached Saldana in front of her residence, in broad daylight, and stabbed her in the torso ten times, with a 5 1/2 inch (14 cm) knife, nearly killing her. The attack was so fierce that he bent the blade in his rage.

Although there were many nearby onlookers,[3] the attack was only interrupted when bottled water deliveryman, Jeff Fenn, who heard her cries, rushed from the second floor of an apartment building and subdued Jackson. Saldana recovered after four hours of surgery and a four-month hospital stay at the Motion Picture Hospital.

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 in 1996 to be tried for a 1966 robbery/murder. The mentally ill Jackson (who once perceived himself as "the benevolent angel of death") died of heart failure in a British mental hospital in 2004 at age 68.

Jackson's method to find and approach Saldana inspired stalker Robert John Bardo to hire a private investigator to contact Rebecca Schaeffer.

Saldana's rescuer, Jeff Fenn, was awarded a Carnegie Medal and was compensated by the Carnegie Hero Fund for his actions. Fenn had long expressed an interest in Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department training, was immediately given the opportunity to take and pass the entrance exam, after which he graduated from the academy, and became a deputy sheriff.

Victim advocacy

Following her long recovery, Saldana founded the Victims for Victims organization and participated in lobbying for the 1990 anti-stalking law and the 1994 Driver's Privacy Protection Act, which both came into being partly as a consequence of the attack. The experience also inspired Saldana to play herself in the television movie Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story, and she authored the book Beyond Survival, a memoir of her experiences after being attacked.

Performing arts advocacy

Saldana supports awareness for the The Jazz Tap Ensemble, of which her daughter is a member. The group raises money for training gifted teenaged dancers.[4]

Filmography

Theresa Saldana continues to act, and has appeared in dozens of roles on television and films in the last two decades. She appeared 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.

References

External links


 
 
Learn More
Ready to Run (2000 Film)
I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978 Comedy Film)
Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story (1984 Crime Film)

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Actor. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Theresa Saldana" Read more