Theresa Russell (born March 20, 1957 in San Diego, California) is an American actress.
While in high school, at age 14, she began modeling. At the age of 18, she came to the attention of Sam Spiegel, who encouraged her to audition for Elia Kazan's adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Love of the Last Tycoon (the movie was called The Last Tycoon). Though she did not enjoy working with Spiegel (Spiegel was using her for his Casting Couch and wanted to sign her to a long-term contract, which she resisted), Russell eventually turned to an acting career, even studying under Lee Strasberg. Her breakthrough role came in Bad Timing, directed by Nicolas Roeg, whom she became involved with while shooting the movie. Russell's biggest hit was Black Widow (1987), where she played a serial killer being tracked by an FBI agent (Debra Winger).
Russell was married to Roeg from 1982 until they got divorced sometime in the 1990's, and they have two children.
The Who's song "Athena" (from their album It's Hard) was inspired by her (it was originally called "Theresa").
Theresa Russell films on this Wiki:
- The Last Tycoon (1976)
- Straight Time (1978)
- Bad Timing (1980)
- Tenebre (1982)note
- The Razor's Edge (1984)
- Black Widow (1987)
- ARIA (1987)
- Kafka (1991)
- Wild Things (1998)
- The Believer (2001)
- Spider-Man 3 (2007)
- He's Just Not That into You (2009)note
- Liz & Dick (2012)
Theresa Russell television roles on this Wiki:
- Nash Bridges (2000) - 2 episodes
- Empire Falls (2005) - Miniseries
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2006) - 1 episode
- Fringe (2009) - 1 episode
- Cold Case (2010) - 1 episode
- Delete (2012) - Miniseries
