“The Commish” star Theresa Saldana is dead, according to multiple reports.
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RAGING Bull actress and crime victim’s advocate Theresa Saldana has died in Los Angeles aged 61, local media reported.
Though she racked up dozens of film and television credits, Saldana’s most lasting contribution might be her work as a victims’ advocate following a highly-publicized attack that almost took her life at the height of her fame.
Saldana famously portrayed the Police Commissioner’s wife in 1990s TV comedy The Commish, opposite Michael Chiklis.
Theresa Saldana really started to come to the attention of movie-goers and her fans with her excellent acting in Raging Bull. In the film, frequently cited as among the best of the 1980s and ranked in the top five on the American Film Institute’s list of the Greatest American Films of All Time, she played the wife of Joe Pesci’s character, brother to Robert De Niro’s boxer Jake La Motta.
Along with other survivors, she successfully lobbied to push through two pieces of legislation protecting potential stalking victims. In 1994, she was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work on the show, and would eventually go on to marry one of her co-stars on the series, actor Phil Peters.
The attack was ignored by onlookers until a passing delivery man rushed to subdue Theresa’s crazed fan. She also wrote “Beyond Survival”, a memoir.
Her TV credits included “T.J”.
After her attack, Saldana spent several years recovering, before eventually going on to found Victims For Victims, a support and advocacy group devoted to helping those who had been similarly attacked.
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“I was so saddened to hear the news of Theresa Saldana’s untimely death”, her Raging Bull director Martin Scorsese said. Hooker, Cagney & Lacey, and Law & Order. She is survived by her husband and a daughter.
