|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Maria Elana Bello (born April 18, 1967) is a Golden Globe-nominated American actress. After a decade of commitment to exploring smart, tough, interesting characters, actress Maria Bello gained widespread acclaim with Golden Globe-nominated roles in “The Cooler” (2003) and “A History of Violence” (2005). Never looking to be the next two-dimensional blonde, her reputation for intense drama made Bello a favorite among artful directors like John Sayles, David Cronenberg, and Alan Ball, but she also snared the occasional complex female role in multiplex fare like “Payback” (2000) and “The Jane Austen Book Club” (2007). Bello was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, the daughter of Kathy, a teacher and school nurse, and Joe Bello, a contractor. Her father was Italian American and her mother Polish American. She grew up in a working-class Roman Catholic family and graduated from Archbishop Carroll High School (Radnor, PA). Maria Bello was raised in a Polish/Italian household in working class Norristown, PA, attending a Catholic school which did not have a theater department. In fact, acting was not even on Bello’s radar until she took a drama class at Villanova University as an elective in a schedule otherwise filled with political science and pre-law courses. After graduating with a political science degree in 1989, she threw her intended plans for law school aside, moving instead to New York, where she crashed on a friend’s floor, got a bartending gig, and started gaining invaluable experience in off-Broadway plays. Bello struggled for years, making little or no money in independent theatrical productions and the occasional commercial, yet remained unwaveringly committed to her craft. Later she attended Villanova University, majoring in political science. She intended to become a lawyer, but took an acting class during her senior year, just for fun. She was soon cast in small off-Broadway plays, such as The Killer Inside Me, Small Town Gals With Big Problems and Urban Planning. She later guest-starred on episodes of The Commish (1991), Nowhere Man (1995), Misery Loves Company (1995) and Due South (1994). In 1992, she combined her dedication to the arts with a passion for social causes that had previously informed her law career, by co-founding Harlem's Dreamyard Drama Project. The Dreamyard was a nonprofit arts and education program that paired working artists with at-risk kids, eventually giving a voice and a better chance at academic achievement to thousands of kids across the city. Bello's breakthrough came when producers Kerry Lenhart and John J. Sakmar cast her as Mrs. Smith in the spy show Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1996) ; they remembered her from her performance in a failed pilot that was a remake of the classic TV series 77 Sunset Strip (1958). The show was cancelled after just eight weeks on the air. Then came a guest stint on ER as the feisty pediatrician Dr. Anna Del Amico, in which she guest-starred in the final four episodes of the third season. The show's producers were so impressed with her that they asked her back as a regular on the series. Bello remained on the show for one season, departing after the medical drama's 4th season. The actress went on into movies landing a role in Coyote Ugly. Maybe it was all her hard work; maybe it was a bit of good karma coming back her way – but by 1995, Bello began getting some professional breaks, landing small screen roles in the TV-movie "The Commish: In the Shadow of the Gallows" (ABC, 1995). Her tough, smart exterior was the perfect choice to play a spy opposite Scott Bakula on the CBS action series "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" (1996). With this offer, Bello relocated to Los Angeles and, although the series was ultimately short-lived, it led the actress to regular appearances on the respected medical drama "ER" (NBC, 1994- ), playing pediatrician Anna Del Amico. Bello showed Hollywood what she was made of with her stunning performance as a tough-loving, recovering junkie opposite Ben Stiller in the film adaptation of Jerry Stahl’s harrowing Hollywood heroin memoir, "Permanent Midnight" (1998). Later in the year, Bello expanded on her earlier work with Dreamyard by accompanying a team of artists and teachers on a Save the Children-sponsored trip to Nicaragua, where they shared arts activities with survivors of Hurricane Mitch. In 1999, she embarked on a similar trip to Kosovo and eventually visited India and China, where she similarly documented the world’s children through interviews and photographs. With her reputation as a dependable leading lady beginning to build, Bello subsequently began getting better offers, playing complicated women who were typically hard-as-nails on the outside but warm and vulnerable on the inside. She went mainstream with two memorable roles in quick succession: starring as a hooker with ties to Mel Gibson in "Payback" (1999) and bringing her real-life experience to the role of a leather-clad bar-owner and den mother to a pack of midriff-baring barmaids in "Coyote Ugly" (2000). She also appeared as a vulnerable sexpot in director Bruce Paltrow's final film, "Duets" (2000), before abruptly switching gears for the IMAX film "China: The Panda Adventure," a film about a 1930s Chinese panda study excursion. Bello’s next role was that of a real-life mother — having given birth to her first child Jackson Blue McDermott in 2001. Jack’s father was Bello’s longtime boyfriend Dan McDermott, the former head of Dreamworks Production-turned-screenwriter/producer. Bello returned to the screen in 2002 when Paul Schrader tapped her for “Auto Focus” (2002), his gritty film about the kinky secret sex life and eventual murder of "Hogan’s Heroes" (CBS, 1965-1971) star Bob Crane, in which she played his sexy co-star-turned-girlfriend. That small but effective role was just a prelude, however, to her fine leading work in "The Cooler" (2003). Playing opposite William H. Macy — a loser so unlucky he is employed by a Las Vegas casino to spread his infectious misfortune whenever gamblers hit a hot streak – Bello's cocktail waitress Natalie emerged as his apparent salvation when their passionate love affair seemed to lift Macy's terminal bad luck. After earning raves on the festival circuit, "The Cooler" was at the center of controversy due to one of Bello's nude scenes; the scene was eventually trimmed to secure an R rating. But it was Bello's sensitive and bold performance that really raised eyebrows, and among other accolades, the actress received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture. With such a breakout role, Bello had no shortage scripts now being sent her way. She snared a small role in the unsettling Johnny Depp thriller "Secret Window" (2004), followed by a smart turn in John Sayles' sharply drawn political satire/mystery "Silver City" (2004), in which she played top political reporter Nora Allardyce, the former lover of a private eye (Danny Huston), investigating political dirty tricks on a doltish gubernatorial candidate (Chris Cooper). Bello was also featured in the 2005 remake of the police thriller "Assault on Precinct 13" as a psychiatrist trapped inside a police precinct house during a violent invasion. She has been nominated for the Golden Globe award twice: for Best Supporting Actress in The Cooler (2003) and for Best Actress in A History of Violence (2005). The following year, she earned a New York Film Critics Circle Best Supporting Actress award for her raw, emotional performance of a woman whose loving, rock-solid husband (Viggo Mortensen) foils a violent robbery attempt in his diner, only to draw menacing attention from some shadowy figures from his hereto unknown and dangerous past. Bello convincingly conveyed all of the complicated, overwhelming emotions that struck her character as she discovered she did not know who her husband really was. The performance was another feather in an increasingly full cap. Having made a name for herself as any number of no-nonsense women hell bent on independent survival, Bello eventually began to explore softer territories onscreen with the family film “Flicka” (2006), and a year later, as part of the ensemble cast of the well-received literary dramedy, “The Jane Austen Book Club.” Bello also had a supporting role in “Nothing is Private,” the Alan Ball directed suburban drama that screened at the Toronto Film Festival in the fall of 2007. Bello practises yoga, muay thai and ballet. Bello and her ex-boyfriend, TV executive Dan McDermott, welcomed their first child, Jackson Blue McDermott, on March 5, 2001. She is good friends with actresses Mariska Hargitay and Carrie-Anne Moss. Bello is the godmother of Moss' first son. Moss is the godmother of Bello's son Jack. Has a tattoo of the logo for the Philadelphia Eagles. Her Father got one the same day. She stated this on the Ellen Show. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Celebrities Guide 
| WhoABC
Home : Disclaimer
: Terms
: Privacy
Policy : Contact
Us : Links All original content Copyright Celebrities Guide, WhoABC.com © 2004 - 2008. All Rights Reserved |