Linda Fiorentino


Clorinda Fiorentino is an American actress. Fiorentino made her screen debut with a leading role in the 1985 coming-of-age drama film Vision Quest, followed that same year with a lead role in the action film Gotcha! and an appearance in the film After Hours. Fiorentino gained attention for her lead roles in the erotic thriller Jade, the science-fiction action comedy film Men in Black and the fantasy comedy Dogma. For her performance in the 1994 film The Last Seduction, she won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, the London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actress of the Year, and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.

Early life

One of either seven or eight children in an Italian-American family, Fiorentino was born in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up in South Philadelphia and later the Turnersville section of Washington Township in nearby South Jersey. In 1976, Fiorentino graduated from Washington Township High School in Sewell, New Jersey. She began performing in plays at Rosemont College in suburban Philadelphia before graduating in 1980. She trained at the Circle in the Square Theater School in Manhattan while working as a bartender at the nightclub Kamikaze, where fellow future acting professional Bruce Willis also worked.

Career

Fiorentino got her first professional role in 1985 when she starred in Vision Quest.
She then starred in the action film Gotcha! which was filmed in Los Angeles, California; Paris, France; and Berlin, Germany. Her co-star, Anthony Edwards, later directed her in Charlie's Ghost Story.
In 1994, she received accolades for her performance in director John Dahl's neo noir film The Last Seduction, playing the murderous femme fatale, Bridget. Her performance won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress and the London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actress of the Year, and was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She followed this as the femme fatale in the 1995 erotic thriller Jade, a critical and box-office failure. She later worked again with Dahl on his film Unforgettable.
Fiorentino played the female lead in the highly successful Men in Black in 1997, then appeared in the direct-to-video Body Count in 1998. In 1999, she starred in Dogma as an abortion clinic employee tasked with saving the world.
After a co-starring role in the 2000 heist film Where the Money Is, and a lead role as the titular character in the 2002 film Liberty Stands Still, Fiorentino's career slowed to a halt. She was in talks to star in a series being prepared by Tom Fontana, but ultimately did not take the project. Fiorentino was attached to a Georgia O’Keeffe biographical drama called Till the End of Time, but the project stalled when Fiorentino had a falling out with the producer. In 2007, Fiorentino optioned the rights to a screenplay about Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, with plans to produce and to possibly star in and direct, but the project was dropped. During this period, she was reported to be developing two documentaries, none of which moved forward., Fiorentino has made a single screen appearance since, in the 2009 direct-to-video release Once More with Feeling.

Personal life

Fiorentino is divorced from film director and writer John Byrum.

Involvement in Anthony Pellicano case

In 2009, former Federal Bureau of Investigation agent Mark T. Rossini pleaded guilty to illegally accessing FBI computers during the prosecution of Los Angeles private investigator Anthony Pellicano. Law enforcement officials said Fiorentino previously had had a relationship with Pellicano and wanted to assist his defense. According to prosecutors, Fiorentino was now dating Rossini, and told him she was researching a screenplay based on the case. He conducted searches of government computers for information related to the Pellicano case and passed the results to Fiorentino, who then handed the files over to Pellicano's lawyers in a failed effort to help Pellicano avoid a 15-year prison sentence.

Filmography