The beautiful, raven-haired, smoky-voiced Linda Fiorentino made an impressive debut as an adolescent’s object of desire in “Vision Quest” (1985), reportedly landing the part at her first professional audition. That same year she starred in the Cold War thriller “Gotcha!” as a sexy secret agent and made a memorable appearance in Martin Scorsese’s nightmarish comedy “After Hours” as kinky SoHo sculptor (and dominatrix) Kiki Bridges. Deciding that mainstream Hollywood was not for her, she took herself out of the running for the “Top Gun” (1986) role eventually played by Kelly McGillis, opting for the world of little-seen independents instead. Although her next project, Zalman King’s “Wildfire” (1987) was forgettable twaddle, Alan Rudolph’s “The Moderns” (1988) allowed her a chance to show greater range. As Rachel, the battered partner of John Lone, Fiorentino displayed a vulnerability previously unexplored in her other screen outings. For the next few years, she disappeared into ensemble pieces like “Queens Logic” and Shout” (both 1991) and “Chain of Desire” (1993), all flying well beneath the radar screen.
