Patricia Charbonneau

For other uses, see Charbonneau.

Patricia Charbonneau
Born	(1959-04-19) April 19, 1959 Valley Stream, Long Island, New York, United States
Occupation	Actress

Patricia Charbonneau (born April 19, 1959) is an American actress, perhaps best known for playing the part of Cay Rivvers in Desert Hearts, her first film role.

Early life

Patricia Charbonneau was born in Valley Stream, New York on Long Island, the youngest of 10 children. Her father, a retired businessman, is French; her mother is Austrian. She graduated in 1977 from Valley Stream Central High School, which she attended with fellow actors Steve Buscemi and Steve Hytner, as well as writer Ed Renehan. She later attended Boston University as a theater major, and left after a month to take a position with the Lexington Conservatory Theatre company in the Catskills. The story of the Conservatory Theater is chronicled in the documentary The Loss of Nameless Things.

Early work

In addition to work with the Lexington Conservatory Theatre, Charbonneau worked on the New York stage in a production of Revengers...A Tragedea, at Playwrights Horizons. She then became a member of the Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she originated the role of Lea in My Sister in this House, a part that she also played off-Broadway.

Desert Hearts

In 1985, Charbonneau made her film debut in Donna Deitch's film "Desert Hearts" at a time when it was still considered a risk to portray a lesbian in a romantic drama - complete with a lengthy love scene. Charbonneau told The Globe and Mail, "Kissing Helen wasn't the hard part, really. The hard part was walking out on the set naked and just standing there." Two days before shooting began, Charbonneau found out that she was pregnant (by her rock musician husband Vincent Caggiano) with her first child, whom she once called her "Desert Hearts baby."

For her performance in "Desert Hearts", Charbonneau was nominated for a 1987 Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

Other notable work

In the following year she appeared in Michael Mann's Manhunter (based on the novel Red Dragon) and then played Anna, the lead, in Call Me (1988), which also featured fellow Valley Streamer Buscemi. The same year, she was featured in the crime drama/action movie "Shakedown". Her television work began with a 1986 NBC pilot C.A.T. Squad and continued with dozens of appearances, including HBO's Tales from the Crypt, Crime Story, The Equalizer, Wiseguy, Murder She Wrote, Matlock, New York Undercover, and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. In the 1990 film Robocop 2, she played the role of Linda Garcia. Despite the character's prominence in the movie's plot, her name is never spoken and the role was not listed in the credits; particularly observant fans were able to determine the character's name by noticing that she wore a name tag. In 1995, she starred in the Legend Entertainment sci-fi adventure game Mission Critical. She played one of James Garner's daughters in the 1999 CBS made-for-TV film One Special Night, which featured Julie Andrews.

In March 2007, Charbonneau joined the faculty of the Hudson Valley Academy of Performing Arts in West Taghkanic, New York where she teaches an acting workshop for children and teens.

Filmography

Movies

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1983	MysteryDisc: Many Roads to Murder	Tracey Lowe	Video
1985	Desert Hearts	Cay Rivvers
1986	Manhunter	Mrs. Sherman
1988	Shakedown	Susan Cantrell
	Call Me	Anna
1990	Brain Dead	Dana Martin
	RoboCop 2	Robocop Technician	Uncredited
1991	K2	Jacki
1996	Portraits of a Killer	Carolyn Price
1998	Kiss the Sky	Franny
1999	The Arrangement	Marion Markel
	She's All That	Lois Siler
	California Myth	Barbara
2008	100 Feet	Frances

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1986	C.A.T. Squad	Nikki Blake	TV Movie
1986 - 87	Crime Story	Inger Thorson	7 Episodes
1987	The Equalizer	Sally Stevens	1 Episode, High Performance
	Spenser: For Hire	Linda Shannon	1 Episode, Mary Hamilton
1988	Disaster at Silo 7	Kathy Fitzgerald	TV Movie
1988 - 89	The Equalizer	Carole Sternberg	5 Episodes
1989	Unsub	Lucille	1 Episode, Silent Stalker
	Matlock	Madeline 'Maddy' Medford	1 Episode, The Con Man
	Desperado: Badlands Justice	Emily Harris	TV Movie
1990	Booker	Clara	1 Episode, Who Framed Roger Thornton?
	Midnight Caller	Dakota Roberts	1 Episode, Three for the Money
1991	Murder, She Wrote	Diana Sterling	1 Episode, From the Horse's Mouth
	Father Dowling Mysteries	Laurie Kidd	1 Episode, The Malibu Mystery
	The Owl	Danny Santerre	TV Movie
	Captive	Karen	TV Movie
1992	The Commish	Catherine Belzer	1 Episode, Sex, Love and Kerosene
	Tales from the Crypt	Ellen Renfield	1 Episode, Strung Along
1993	Renegade	Janet	1 Episode, Vanished
	Walker, Texas Ranger	Robin Henley	1 Episode, Storm Warning
1994	Viper	Ella Keats	1 Episode, Wheels of Fire
1995	Extreme	Sheriff Lynn Roberts	1 Episode, Pilot
	seaQuest DSV	Elaine Morse	2 Episodes
1996	Kindred: The Embraced	Camilla	1 Episode, Bad Moon Rising
1997	Profiler	Barbara Chapin	1 Episode, Shattered Silence
	New York Undercover	Jennifer Lewis	1 Episode, School's Out
	Diagnosis Murder	Fed. Marshal Monica Shattuck	1 Episode, Deadly Games
1998	Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction	Woman Driving	1 Episode, Bright Lights
1999	One Special Night	Lori	TV Movie
2000	Strange World		1 Episode, Age of Reason
2001	Law & Order: Criminal Intent	Sydney Markham	1 Episode, The Extra Man
2002	Law & Order	Janet Naiman	1 Episode, Oxymoron
2008	Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	Paige Beddles	1 Episode, Streetwise

Video Games

Year	Title	Role
1995	Mission Critical	Lieutenant Commander Tran

External links

• Patricia Charbonneau on Yahoo! Movies
• Patricia Charbonneau at the Internet Movie Database
• Desert Hearts at IMDb
• Patricia Charbonneau article 1986 at People Magazine