1984: 'The Theresa Saldana Story' Airs on NBC
November 12, 2020
| By TV WW
On this day in 1984, actress Theresa Saldana played herself in the gut-wretching NBC telefilm, Victims for Victims: The Theresa Saldana Story. Two years earlier, Saldana — perhaps best-known for playing Rachel Scali, wife of Michael Chiklis' Tony Scali on ABC's The Commish — barely survived a knife attack by a obsessed fan.
Saldana's stalker first saw the actress in the 1980 film, Defiance, and used a private detective to obtain information that led him to her West Hollywood home. He stabbed her ten times, in broad daylight, with onlookers watching. A lone man, Jeff Fenn, who was making a delivery nearby, rushed to the scene to subdue the attacker.
Following her recovery, Saldana became an advocate for stalking victims, lobbying for federal protections and privacy safeguards. Sadly, she passed away in June of 2016.