Linda Fiorentino Biography

Date of Birth: March 9, 1960

Linda Fiorentino was raised in an Italian family of eight children in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She grew up something of a tomboy, always considering her five sisters to be prettier than herself. Fiorentino developed her love of basketball by playing it with her brothers and it was on the blacktop that she fell in love for the first time.

After graduating Washington Township High School, Fiorentino attended college. She went to the Catholic liberal arts school for women, Rosemont College, and majored in political science. Her original plan was to attend law school, "I was actually three months away from going to law school," she recalls. "I think I would have been a trial lawyer." But in her junior year, she began appearing in university theatrical productions and by graduation, she had her mind firmly set on a stage career.

Moving to New York, she auditioned and won a place in the Circle-in-the-Square Performing Workshop with a reading from Tennessee Williams' Orpheus Descending.

The year 1985 was big for Fiorentino, as she was about to complete three films. At her very first film audition she was chosen by director Harold Becker to play the lead in Vision Quest. As a neophyte in the film, she earned excellent notices as Matthew Modine's older woman. She then went on to share top billing with Anthony Edwards in the hit Gotcha!, again portraying an experienced femme fatale who relieves the young hero of his innocence. This was followed by a role as the kinky sculptress in Martin Scorsese's After Hours.

Despite her earlier success, Fiorentino has had trouble building a solid career in Hollywood because of her reputation as a difficult actress who turns down good parts. She took herself out of the running for the female lead in Top Gun and rejected a supporting role in Basic Instinct. As a result, Fiorentino has spent much of her career laboring in obscure films like Queens Logic, Chain of Desire and The Desperate Trail.

Ten years after her film debut, she started making her comeback. In 1994 she completed The Last Seduction for which she received a Best Actress Award from the New York Film Critics Circle. A year later Fiorentino returned to star in the sexy thriller, Jade. In 1997, it was rumored that she won her part in Men in Black (1997) in a poker game from Barry Sonnenfeld. Besides the part in the film, she won around $1200.

At the closing of the millennium, Fiorentino was cast in the blasphemous biblical comedy, Dogma (1999) playing Jesus' last descendant, as well as landing parts in the sci-fi comedy, What Planet Are You From? (2000), and Where the Money Is (2000) with Paul Newman.

She was married to director John Byrum, but is now divorced. She claims in recent interviews that she is seeing no one and rarely dates. She wants children, but doesn't want the hassle of a husband. "Marriage is a financial contract; I have enough contracts already."

Filmography:

Where the Money Is (2000)
What Planet Are You From? (2000)
Ordinary Decent Criminal (2000)
Till the End of Time (2000)
Dogma (1999)
Body Count (1998)
Killer's Kiss (1998)
Men in Black (1997)
Kicked in the Head (1997)
Larger Than Life (1996)
Unforgettable (1996)
Jade (1995)
Bodily Harm (1995)
Charlie's Ghost Story (1994)
The Desperate Trail (1994)
Acting on Impulse (1993)
Beyond the Law (1992)
Chain of Desire (1992)
Queens Logic (1991)
Shout (1991)
Strangers (1991)
The Moderns (1988)
Wildfire (1988)
Vision Quest (1985)
Gotcha! (1985)
After Hours (1985)