Valeria Golino

Valeria Golino is an Italian actress and film director. She is known to English-language audiences for her role in Rain Man, Big Top Pee-wee and the two Hot Shots! films, especially the olive-in-the-belly-button scene. The second child of an Italian germanist and a Greek painter, Valeria Golino grew up in Naples until her parents parted. After three years in Athens with her mother and another three in Naples with her father, she began to work as a model. She left high school after her first movie and didn't study performing arts at all. In 1985 she got the leading role in Pequenas Chamas (1985) by Peter Del Monte and the next year won the Best Actress Award at the Venice Film Festival for Storia d'amore (1986). After some European co-productions (Dernier été à Tanger (1987), Gli occhiali d'oro (1987), Três Irmãs (1988)) she began to work in Hollywood (Pee-Wee: Meu Filme Circense (1988)). She soon gained prominent roles in Rain Man (1988), Top Gang! Ases Muito Loucos (1991) and Top Gang 2! A Missão (1993). Now she works in the US (Memória Curta (1994), Acusação Fatal (1996)), Europe (A Amante do Rei (1990), Minha Amada Imortal (1994)) and in Italy. too, especially with young directors (Lágrimas de Crocodilo (1994), Le acrobate (1997), A Árvore do Pico (1998)). In 1994 she produced and acted in I sfagi tou kokora (1996) by Greek director Andreas Pantzis. Her voice is more appreciated in Hollywood (where she took speech therapy) than in Italy (where she is sometimes dubbed); in "The Slaughter of the Cock" she acts as a deaf and dumb woman. She speaks four languages: Italian, Greek, French and English. Her brother is a musician and their uncle Enzo Golino is a famous journalist.