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Theresa Saldana, best known for her role as Rachel Scali on the ’90s crime series The Commish, has died.
The actress reportedly died at the age of 61 of undisclosed causes following a Los Angeles hospital stay.
The actress was one of Hollywood’s hottest starlets at the start of the ’80s, but an acclaimed turn in the hit movie “Raging Bull” also captured the attention of psycho slasher Arthur Richard Jackson.
Tragically, Theresa’s career was almost put to a savage end when the drifter from Scotland tracked the actress down to her West Hollywood residence.
On March 15, 1982, the stalker approached Theresa in broad daylight and slashed her in the torso repeatedly with a knife.
The attack was ignored by onlookers until a passing delivery man rushed to subdue Theresa’s crazed fan.
The actress spent four hours in surgery and ultimately recovered from the attack — but the injuries forced her to drop out of the filming of 1982’s “Tootsie,” with her role being taken over by Geena Davis in a breakout performance.
Theresa would ultimately return to acting, but also took on a new role in victims’ advocacy — found the Victims for Victims organization and lobbying for a 1990 anti-stalking law.
Her group also pursued the 1994 Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which prevents the Department of Motor Vehicles from releasing personal information.
Theresa launched her activism by bravely portraying her own violent attack as she played herself in the 1984 TV-movie “Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story” (as pictured above).
As an actress, she was best known for playing the wife of Michael Chiklis’ character Tony Scalic character for five seasons of “The Commish.” She later retired from acting in 2004.
Arthur Richard Jackson — who claimed “higher powers” had ordered him to kill Theresa as a “Benevolent Angel of Death” — would go on to serve 14 years in prison. The sentence was only that long because of additional threats that Jackson made to the actress after being convicted.
He was extradited to serve a prison term in the UK in 1996. He was then eventually committed to a British asylum — where he died of heart failure in 2004 at the age of 68.
Agencies/Canadajournal
