Gina Mastrogiacomo

Gina Mastrogiacomo (November 5, 1961 – May 2, 2001) was an American actress.

Career Mastrogiacomo made her film debut as Roxie in the 1987 fantasy comedy film Harry and the Hendersons. She next starred as the lead female character, Ginny, in Richard Haines's 1989 sci-fi comedy Space Avenger, an independent film which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival and parodied the Alien franchise and other sci-fi horror films like The Hidden. Mastrogiacomo's performance impressed Martin Scorsese, who decided to cast her in his hit 1990 gangster film Goodfellas after watching the film. In that film she portrayed Janice Rossi, Ray Liotta's mistress, and delivered a performance praised for its passionate and realistic delivery. Her performance is praised as "vivid and immediate", which has not been reflected in retrospectives and oral histories of the film because of her early death. Also in 1990, Mastrogiacomo starred in the 1990 musical television film An East Side Story. In 1991 she portrayed Louise in Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, one of several actors who had also appeared in Goodfellas. Variety critic Tony Scott wrote that "Mastrogiacomo excels as Maggie's loyal friend Gloria" in the USA Network's 1995 television film Tall, Dark, and Deadly. In 2000, she played the role of Jenny Uphouse in the X-Files episode "Chimera", playing a character having an affair with the sheriff as a form of revenge against middle-class housewife snobbery.

Personal life Mastrogiacomo was raised in Oceanside, Long Island, New York, and died in California on May 2, 2001, at age 39 of a bacterial heart infection.

Filmography

Film Year Title Role Notes 1989 Alien Space Avenger Ginny 1990 Goodfellas Janice Rossi East Side Story - 1991 Jungle Fever Louise The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear Sex Shop Worker 1994 Motorcycle Gang Waitress TV movie 1995 Tall, Dark and Deadly Gloria Bowers TV movie 1996 Bloodhounds Liz Moore TV movie 1998 The Con Debbie TV movie Lone Greasers Rockin' Lexie Short Conversations in Limbo - Short

Television Year Title Role Notes 1991 The Fanelli Boys - Episode: "Rope a Dope" 1993 Harry and the Hendersons Roxie Newton Episode: "The Three Faces of Brett" 1994 NYPD Blue Chicky Episode: "A Sudden Fish" 1995 Under Suspicion Nora Episode: "Sex Harassment/Corruption Case" 1996 Seinfeld Prostitute Episode: "The Wig Master" 1998 ER Ms. Myra Episode: "A Hole in the Heart" 2000 The X-Files Jenny Uphouse Episode: "Chimera"