Valeria Golino

An alluring brunette actress of Italian and Greek heritage, Valeria Golino made her film debut at age 16 in Lina Wertmuller's "A Joke of Destiny Lying in Wait Around the Corner Like a Robber" (1983). Raised in Greece and Italy, she worked regularly in Italian features including "Little Flames" (1985) and "Love Story" (1986). She made an impact in the USA co-starring in two high-profile 1988 films opposite two very different leading men. "Big Top Pee-Wee" cast her as a trapeze artist who falls for Pee-Wee Herman, with whom she shares what is reputedly the screen's longest kiss. As Tom Cruise's sympathetic girlfriend in "Rain Man," the actress gave autistic Dustin Hoffman his first kiss.

Usually cast as "the sultry woman," Golino proved adept at comedy in the Jim Abrahams adventure spoof "Hot Shots!" (1991) for which she performed a torch song. She also starred in the inevitable sequel, "Hot Shots! Part Deux" (1993). In between, Golino played David Morse's Mexican-born wife in Sean Penn's directorial debut, "The Indian Runner" (1991). More recently, she was one of the women in the life of composer Ludwig Beethoven in "Immortal Beloved" (1994). had small roles in "Leaving Las Vegas" and "Four Rooms" (both 1995) and was one of the denizens of post-apocalyptic Southern California in "John Carpenter's Escape From L.A." (1996). Golino then primarily plied her trade in Italian cinema, resurfacing occasionally in American films such as the episodic drama "Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her" (2000) in which played the terminally ill Lilly in the sequence "Goodnight Lilly, Goodnight Christine." Her next major role was in producer-star Salma Hayek's long-gestating biopic "Frida," based on the life of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.