An attractive blond native of Norristown, Pennsylvania, Maria Bello moved to NYC where she spent about six years doing the struggling-actress thing, appearing in numerous stage productions, shooting a few commercials, including her golden moment as the Amstel Light girl, and co-founding Harlem’s Dream Yard Drama Project, a nonprofit arts and education program for urban kids. She made her TV debut in a guest appearance on the Fox comedy “Misery Loves Company” and demonstrated her versatility with a strong romantic turn opposite Bruce Greenwood in an episode of “Nowhere Man” (UPN). Bello made her TV-movie debut in “The Commish: In the Shadow of the Gallows” (ABC, 1995) before landing a choice role as a spy opposite Scott Bakula on the short-lived 1996 CBS action series “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”. She checked into County General Hospital for three “ER” episodes as sassy pediatrician Anna Del Amico, a character which became a regular on the popular series for one season (1997-98). Bello made a strong sexy impression as a recovering junkie to whom screenwriter Jerry Stahl (Ben Stiller) recounts his past in in “Permanent Midnight” (1998).
With each successive role, Bello found a new dimension to her characters, which were typically hard-as-nails on the outside but warm and vulnerable on the inside. In 1999 she starred as a hooker with ties to Mel Gibson in “Payback” and in 2000 she made a strong impression as the sultry leather-clad owner of the bar “Coyote Ugly” (which provided the name for the otherwise stupefying film) and den-mother to its collection of midriff-baring bartenders. She also appeared as another vulnerable sexpot in director Bruce Paltrow’s “Duets” (2000) and switched gears for the nature-oriented IMAX film “China: The Panda Adenture,” in which she plays a widow following in her husband’s footsteps as she studies the Chinese Panda in the 1930s (2001).
Bello resurfaced again in 2002 in Paul Schrader’s gritty “Auto Focus,” playing the TV actress wife of 1960s “Hogan’s Heroes” star Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear), who led a kinky secret sex life that led to his murder, but that small but effective role was just a prelude to her fine leading work in “The Cooler” (2003). Playing opposite William H. Macy, as a loser so unlucky he’s employed by a Las Vegas casino to spread his infectious misfortune whenever gamblers hit a hot streak, Bello’s cocktail waitress Natalie emerges as his apparent salvation when their passionate love affair seems to lift Macy’s terminal bad luck. Prior to its release after earning raves on the festival circuit, “The Cooler” was at the center of controversy due to one of Bello’s nude scenes, which despite being gratuitously explicit earned an initial NC-17 rating due to a fleeting glimpse of her public hair–after much public protest by the director and cast, the scene was eventually trimmed to secure an R rating. Despite the pre-release brouhaha, 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.
Following her breakout role, Bello already had several projects in the pipeline, next appearing in a supporting role in the thriller “Secret Window” (2004), based on Stephen King story, as the ex-wife of an imperiled novelist (Johnny Depp), followed by a turn in the ensemble of writer-director 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 precint house during a violent invasion to free a drug lord. She earned critical raves for her raw, emotional performance in director David Cronenberg’s taughtly crafted drama “A History of Violence” (2005) in which she played 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 when she discovered she did not know who her husband really is, and the performance was another feather in increasingly full cap.
- Also Credited As:
Huh Jin-ho, Maria Elana Bello
- Born:
on 04/18/67 in Norristown, Pennsylvania
- Job Titles:
Actor, Theater director, Writer, Waitress
Family
- Brother: Chris Bello. born c. 1971
- Father:
- Mother:
- Son: Jackson Blue McDermott. born on March 5, 2001
- : has two additional siblings
Significant Others
- Husband: Dan McDermott. born c. 1963; until November 2001, was head of DreamWorks Television; left to pursue screenwriting career
Education
- Villanova University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, political science
Milestones
- 1992 Co-founded Harlem’s Dream Yard Drama Project, a nonprofit arts and education program for urban kids
- 1995 Made TV-movie debut in “The Commish: In the Shadow of the Gallows”
- 1995 TV debut as a guest on the Fox comedy “Misery Loves Company”
- 1996 Co-starred with Scott Bakula in the short-lived CBS series “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”
- 1997 Had recurring role of Dr. Anna Del Amico on “ER”; made regular for the 1997-1998 season
- 1998 Played leading role opposite Ben Stiller in “Permanent Midnight”
- 1999 Co-starred with Mel Gibson in “Payback”, directed by Brian Helgeland
- 2000 Cast as a sexy waitress who enjoys karaoke in “Duets”
- 2000 Portrayed the bar owner in “Coyote Ugly”
- 2001 Starred in the IMAX movie “China: The Panda Adventure”
- 2001 cast in the dark comedy “100 Mile Rule”
- 2002 cast as Bob Crane’s second wife Patricia (Hogan’s Heroes” actress Sigrid Valdis) in director Paul Schrader’s “Auto Focus”
- 2003 cast as Natalie, a gorgeous Las Vegas casino waitress who falls for William H. Macy, in “The Cooler”; earned a Golden Globe nomination for best actress in a supporting role; earned a SAG nomination for best supporting actress
- 2004 Cast in John Sayles’ political satire “Silver City” which starred Chris Cooper, Kris Kristofferson, Daryl Hannah and Richard Dreyfuss
- 2004 Cast opposite Johnny Depp in “The Secret Window”
- 2005 Starred in the David Cronenberg-directed “A History of Violence,” adapted from the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke
- 2005 Starred with Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishburne in “Assault on Precinct 13″
- Appeared in stage productions in NYC
- Joined Aaron Eckhart and Katie Holmes in the ensemble cast of “Thank You for Smoking,” based on Christopher Buckley’s novel (lensed 2005)
- Shot a few commercials in NYC, including one for Amstel Light
- Will star in the David Cronenberg-directed “A History of Violence,” adapted from the graphic novel by John Wagner and Vince Locke (lensed 2004)
- Will star opposite Sean Bean in the indie “The Dark,” based on the psychological thriller novel “Sheep” by Simon Maginn (lensed 2005)
