Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

Biography: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

The daughter of first generation Italian-Americans, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio was born in Oak Park, IL. Oak Park was also the home town of Ernest Hemingway; some of his "don't mess with me" spirit seems to have been passed on by osmosis to Mastrantonio, who has made her career playing a number of feisty, strong-willed women. Trained for an operatic career, she studied voice at the University of Illinois, Champaign, and had one of her first gigs in an Opryland production of Showboat. Once in New York, Mastrantonio was hired for the 1981 revival of West Side Story, and was lauded in the press for her peppery portrayal of Viola in a New York Shakespeare Festival staging of Twelfth Night. Mastrantonio's first film was Scarface (1983), in which she played Al Pacino's sister (the incestuous subtext was just as pronounced here as in the original 1931 version). She then essayed the role of Benito Mussolini's embittered daughter Edda in the TV miniseries Mussolini: The Untold Story, which starred George C. Scott in the title role. In both of these productions, Mastrantonio tended to be overshadowed by her male co-stars, but she more than held her own opposite such heady company as Paul Newman and Tom Cruise in The Color of Money (1986), an assignment which won her both a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe nomination. After appearing in a few more films -- most notably The Abyss, in which she played Ed Harris' estranged engineer wife -- she starred as Maid Marian in Kevin Costner's Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991. As a mark of the impression the actress had made in strong, self-reliant roles, her transformation into a damsel in distress during the film's final scenes were greeted with audible audience groans. Unfortunately, following the huge commercial -- if not critical -- success of the film, Mastrantonio's visibility receded; over the next few years she could be seen in a number of relatively obscure films, perhaps the most notable of which was Two Bits (1995) with Al Pacino. However, in 1999 Mastrantonio reemerged in the public -- or at least art house -- consciousness, thanks to lead roles in My Life So Far, in which she played Colin Firth's wife, and John Sayles' Limbo, in which she portrayed another strong-willed woman, an itinerant lounge singer who meets an uncertain fate in deepest, darkest Alaska. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide less

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Movies (18)
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The Russell Girl (2008)
Cast: Henry Czerny Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Jennifer Ehle Jeff Bleckner Amber Tamblyn
Length: min
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The Brooke Ellison Story (2004)
Cast: Christopher Reeve Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Lacey Chabert John Slattery Vanessa Marano
Tags: Docudrama Drama Family Drama Biopic
Length: 91min
Christopher Reeve directed this inspiring made-for-television drama based on a true story, which turned out to be his final project before his passing in 2004. When she was 11 years old, Brooke Ellison was involved in an auto accident that caused her...
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Limbo (1999)
Cast: John Sayles Kris Kristofferson David Strathairn Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Haskell Wexler
Tags: Adventure Drama Psychological Drama Drama
Length: 127min
Writer/director John Sayles once again takes his audience to a place they may never have been before (this time both psychologically and geographically). Joe Gastineau (David Strathairn) lives in Juneau, Alaska, where his life has been stuck in...
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Witness Protection (1999)
Cast: Forest Whitaker Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Tom Sizemore Richard Pearce
Tags: Gangster Film Thriller
Length: 105min
Would you be willing to walk away from everyone and everything you've ever known in exchange for your safety? This is the question facing career criminal Bobby "Bats" Batton (Tom Sizemore); on the outs with the mob and facing prosecution for a number...
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My Life So Far (1999)
Cast: Rosemary Harris Malcolm McDowell Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Tchéky Karyo Irène Jacob
Tags: Period Film Drama Family Drama Childhood Drama Coming-of-Age
Length: 93min
Director Hugh Hudson, who made his directorial debut with the award-winning Chariots Of Fire, returns to the theme of British life in the 1920s in the bittersweet family drama My Life So Far. Gamma Macintosh (Rosemary Harris) is the matriarch of a...
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Consenting Adults (1992)
Cast: Kevin Kline Kevin Spacey Forest Whitaker Alan J. Pakula E.G. Marshall
Tags: Crime Thriller Psychological Thriller Thriller
Length: 100min
Composer Richard Parker (Kevin Kline) and his wife Priscilla (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) live an ordinary suburban life until they meet their new neighbors Eddy (Kevin Spacey) and Kay (Rebecca Miller). The two couples become friends until some...
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White Sands (1992)
Cast: Willem Dafoe Samuel L. Jackson Roger Donaldson Mickey Rourke M. Emmet Walsh
Tags: Post-Noir (Modern Noir) Crime Police Detective Film
Length: 105min
A suicide found in the desert with 500,000 dollars cash stuffed in a briefcase makes Sheriff Ray Dolezal (Willem Dafoe) curious. What was the dead man up to? Sensing that if he follows the money, he'll find crime at the end of the trail, Dolezal...
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Three Wishes (1995)
Cast: Martha Coolidge Patrick Swayze Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio Diane Venora Jay O. Sanders
Tags: Americana Comedy Drama Fantasy Comedy Romantic Fantasy Fantasy
Length: 114min
In this offbeat comedy set in the 1950s, Patrick Swayze plays Jack McCloud, a drifter and beatnik who enters the conservative suburban life of the Holman family after Jeanne Holman (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) accidentally hits him with her car....
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Two Bits (1994)
Cast: Al Pacino Alec Baldwin Andy Romano Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio James Foley
Tags: Drama Family Drama Coming-of-Age
Length: 85min
This nostalgic drama is based upon the childhood memories of screenwriter Joseph Stefano. Set in South Philadelphia in 1933 it centers on both a wise grandfather, and his single-minded grandson. The film opens in a garden on a beautiful day. In the...
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Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
Cast: Morgan Freeman Kevin Costner Christian Slater Alan Rickman Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Tags: Romantic Adventure Swashbuckler Costume Adventure Adventure
Length: 150min
This film is a '90s version of the classic Robin Hood story, with Kevin Costner starring as the good-guy thief. Costner is joined in his efforts against the murdering Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman) by Morgan Freeman who plays a philosophizing...
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Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

Biography: Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

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