Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio
Birthday:
Birthplace:
Lombard, Illinois, USA
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.In the years to come, Mastrantonio would appear in many successful projects to come, most notably on the TV series Without a Trace and Law & Order: Criminal Intent.
Highest Rated Movies
Filmography
MOVIES
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | BOX OFFICE | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet | The Russell Girl |
|
— | 2008 |
No Score Yet | Stories of Lost Souls |
|
— | 2005 |
No Score Yet | The Brooke Ellison Story |
|
— | 2004 |
No Score Yet | Tabloid |
|
— | 2004 |
47% | The Perfect Storm |
|
— | 2000 |
60% | Witness Protection |
|
— | 1999 |
70% | My Life So Far |
|
— | 1999 |
72% | Limbo |
|
— | 1999 |
40% | Two Bits |
|
— | 1995 |
13% | Three Wishes |
|
— | 1995 |
No Score Yet | Under Pressure: Making The Abyss |
|
— | 1993 |
25% | Consenting Adults |
|
— | 1992 |
44% | White Sands |
|
— | 1992 |
51% | Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves |
|
— | 1991 |
76% | Class Action |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (Extended Cut) |
|
— | 1991 |
No Score Yet | Fools of Fortune |
|
— | 1990 |
89% | The Abyss |
|
— | 1989 |
25% | The January Man |
|
— | 1989 |
No Score Yet | The Abyss (Special Edition) |
|
— | 1989 |
20% | Slam Dance |
|
— | 1987 |
89% | The Color of Money |
|
— | 1986 |
No Score Yet | Mussolini: The Untold Story |
|
— | 1985 |
82% | Scarface |
|
$0.7M | 1983 |
TV
RATING | TITLE | CREDIT | YEAR |
---|---|---|---|
No Score Yet |
Blindspot
2015
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
2001-2011
|
|
|
58% |
Limitless
2015-2016
|
|
|
56% |
Hostages
2013-2014
|
|
|
89% |
Grimm
2011-2017
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Blue Bloods
2010
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Without a Trace
2002-2009
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
The Tonight Show With Jay Leno
1992-2014
|
|
|
93% |
Frasier
1993-2004
|
|
|
No Score Yet |
Law & Order
1990-2010
|
|
|
Quotes from Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio's Characters
Luisa: | It ain't your heartache that no one's got it to give you. |
Luisa: | What kind of world is it when someone you love can sit in the sun all day and not get some color in his cheeks? |
Eddie Felson: | Do you smell that? |
Vincent Lauria: | Smoke? |
Carmen: | No, Money. |
Carmen: | Vincent, you win one more game... you're gonna be humping your fist for a long time. |
Mama Montana: | You know, all we hear about it in the papers, it's animals like you and the killings. It's Cubans like you who were given a bad name to all our people, people who come here and work hard, and make a good living for themselves. People who send you to school... |
Gina: | No no Mama, that is all you're saying that's your son. |
Mama Montana: | SON! I wish I had one. He's a bum. |
Gina: | No. |
Mama Montana: | He was a bum then, and he's a bum now! Who do you think you are? Hmm? We haven't heard a word from you in 5 years. (cinco anos) You still gonna show up here and throw some money around and you think you can get my respect? You think you can buy me with jewelry? |
Lane Bodine: | You don't have to be straight with me, it's OK. But it doesn't lend itself to intimacy. |
Lane Bodine: | You don't have to be straight with me. It's okay. But it doesn't lend itself to intimacy. |
Gina: | [walks into Tony's office] ls this what you want, Tony? You can't stand for another man to be touching me. So you want me, Tony, huh? Huh? |
Tony Montana: | What you talkin'? |
Gina: | Oh, is that it, huh? [chuckles] Well, here I am, Tony. [Gina reveals a pistol and shoots at Tony] I'm all yours now, Tony, you see? I'm all yours now. [continues shooting] You better come and get me now. Come on! Come and get me, Tony. You do it now before it's too late. [Gina shoots Tony in the leg and laughs] Oh, come on, Tony. Fuck me, huh? [continues shooting] Fuck me, Tony! |
Tony Montana: | Gina! |
Gina: | Fuck me, Tony! Come on and just fuck me! [Gina shoots at the window and one of Sosa's men jumps out and shoots her] |