Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio

Her other film roles include The Abyss (1989), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), and The Perfect Storm (2000). In 2003, she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical for the Broadway revival of Man of La Mancha.

Mastrantonio was born in the DuPage County suburb of Lombard, Illinois, to Frank A. Mastrantonio and Mary Dominica (née Pagone), both of Italian descent. Her father operated a bronze foundry. She was raised in Oak Park, Illinois, and studied drama at the University of Illinois. She worked summers at the Opryland USA theme park to earn money for college.

Mastrantonio has appeared on Broadway in various musicals, including as an understudy later in the 1980 run of West Side Story, Copperfield, The Human Comedy, and the 2002 revival of Man of La Mancha, where she played Aldonza/Dulcinea opposite Brian Stokes Mitchell. She has appeared in New York Shakespeare Festival productions of Henry V, Measure for Measure, and Twelfth Night. Her New York City stage performances brought her a Tony Award nomination and two Drama Desk Award nominations. She also starred in Grand Hotel at the Donmar Warehouse in London's West End. In 1984, she was featured in a benefit performance of A Christmas Carol with Helen Hayes, Raul Julia, Harold Scott, F. MacIntyre Dixon, and Len Cariou at the Symphony Space in New York. In 2008, she starred in A View from the Bridge as Beatrice, with Ken Stott and Allan Corduner at the Duke of York's Theatre, London. On stage, she most recently starred in Ghosts as Helena Alving at the Seattle Repertory Theater.

Since 1990, Mastrantonio has been married to director Pat O'Connor, who directed The January Man; they have two sons. She and her family lived in England for twenty years before moving back to the United States in the 2010s.