About Linda Fiorentino
Clorinda "Linda" 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 neo-noir film The Last Seduction (1994), the erotic thriller Jade (1995), the science-fiction action comedy Men In Black (1997), and the religious comedy Dogma (1999). 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.
Fiorentino was born in 1958 or 1960 (sources differ) as a part of a family of 7 or 8 children in a Catholic Italian-American family 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, from which she graduated in 1980 with a bachelor of arts degree in political science. Immediately following her time at Rosemont, Fiorentino made the move to New York City, where she was accepted into the prestigious Circle in the Square Professional Theater School, one of only 54 applicants taken from a field of 1,200. While training to be an actress, she worked as a bartender at the nightclub Kamikaze, where fellow actor Bruce Willis also worked.
Fiorentino got her first professional role in 1985 when she starred in Vision Quest. She then starred in the action film Gotcha!.
Fiorentino allegedly dropped out of the running to play opposite Tom Cruise in the highly successful Top Gun, a role eventually landed by Kelly McGillis. She instead focused her efforts on a biopic about Andy Warhol contemporary Edie Sedgwick that was to be written and directed by then-husband John Byrum. The film never went into production, and Fiorentino - whose career suffered from being away from screens for so long - eventually acquiesced to appear in the subpar romantic adventure Wildfire (1988), helmed by first-time director Zalman King. Much more favorably received was her vulnerable performance alongside Keith Carradine and John Lone in The Moderns (1988), a period drama revolving around American expatriates in 1920s Paris.
For the next few years, she disappeared into a string of disposable ensemble pieces like Queens Logic (1991), Shout (1991), the short-lived TV-movie/series Strangers, the sexy drama Chain of Desire (1992), and the action film Beyond the Law opposite Charlie Sheen in 1993.
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 (1996), which reunited her with John Dahl as director. In 1995, Empire Magazine named her #66 on their list of "100 Sexiest Stars in Film History."
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. Fiorentino was supposed to return for Men in Black 2 in 2002, but co-star Tommy Lee Jones said he would not return to the franchise if Fiorentino was going to return for the sequel, allegedly due to her tempestuous nature.[2] Fiorentino enjoyed a small bump with her appearance in Kevin Smith's controversial, scathing satire of Catholicism, Dogma (1999), although the outspoken director's well-publicized remarks about her diva-like behavior on the set of the film was far from the press she needed at the time.
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, but none moved forward. Fiorentino's last starring role came along side of Chazz Palminteri and Drea de Mateo in the dramatic comedy Once More with Feeling in 2009.
She has studied photography since 1987 at the International Center of Photography in New York City.
Fiorentino was married to writer, producer, and director John Byrum from 1992-1993. She was also briefly linked to NBA basketball player Jayson Williams for a short time. Fiorentino has no children. She splits her time between a residence in New York City and a home in Westport, Connecticut.
Fiorentino is an ardent liberal political activist, and has regularly donated and stumped for Democratic candidates. She has a degree in political science from Rosemont College.
After a period of relative obscurity, Fiorentino made headlines late in 2008 when her then-boyfriend, ex-FBI agent Mark T. Rossini, was charged with accessing sensitive bureau computer files regarding legally-challenged L.A. private investigator Anthony Pellicano, at Fiorentino's behest. Law enforcement officials said Fiorentino previously had had a relationship with Pellicano and wanted to assist his defense.
For her part, the actress claimed that it was in order to research a film based on Pellicano that she hoped to produce. Prosecutors, on the other hand, felt that it was an attempt by the actress - who knew the P.I. - to help Pellicano in his wire tapping and racketeering trial. Ultimately, the end result was the break-up of Fiorentino and Rossini, his resigning from the FBI in disgrace, and Pellicano being sentenced to 15 years in prison.
