Theresa Saldana

Theresa Saldana (August 20, 1954 – June 6, 2016) was an American actress, activist, and writer. She was best known for her role as Rachel Scali on the television series The Commish (1991–96), for which she received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film.

Saldana's other notables roles included a teen Beatles fan in Robert Zemeckis' Beatlemania comedy I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) and as Lenora LaMotta in Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980). She was also known for raising public awareness of the crime of stalking after surviving a knife attack by an obsessed fan at her home in 1982.

Early life Saldana was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, and was adopted at five days old by Divina and Tony Saldana, a family of Puerto Rican and Italian-American heritage.

Saldana took dance lessons as a child. After suffering a serious shoulder injury while part of a tumbling team, she enrolled in acting classes at age 12. After being spotted by a talent scout while performing in an Off Broadway musical called The New York City Street Show in 1977, she was cast in the 1978 film Nunzio.

Stalking incident Saldana was stalked by Arthur Richard Jackson, a 46-year-old drifter from Aberdeen, Scotland. Jackson became obsessed with Saldana after seeing her in the 1980 films Defiance and Raging Bull. He hired a private investigator who obtained 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 West Hollywood residence in broad daylight on March 15, 1982, and repeatedly stabbed her with a hunting knife, puncturing a lung. His attack was so fierce that the blade bent. Although there were many nearby onlookers, including children,

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, both of which came into being partly as a consequence of the attack. The experience also inspired Saldana to play herself in the television film Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story, and she authored the book Beyond Survival, a memoir of her experiences after being attacked.

Personal life Saldana's first marriage was to Fred Feliciano from February 11, 1979, to 1986. In March 1989, she married for the second time, to Phil Peters, with whom she had a daughter, Tianna Saldana Peters (born August 30, 1989, in Los Angeles). They remained together until her death.

Death Saldana died on June 6, 2016, at age 61, after being hospitalized with pneumonia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Michael Chiklis, who played Saldana's husband on The Commish, wrote that it was "painful to hear the news."

Filmography

Film

Television

Books