Trini Alvarado
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Trinidad "Trini" Alvarado (born January 10, 1967) is an American actress best known for her performances as Margaret "Meg" March in the 1994 film adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's novel '' Little Women'' and Lucy Lynskey in the comedy horror film '' The Frighteners''. She also has had notable stage performances and singing roles in musicals.


Personal life

Alvarado was born in New York City, the daughter of Sylvia, a Puerto Rican
flamenco Flamenco () is an art form based on the various folkloric music traditions of southern Spain, developed within the Gitanos, gitano subculture of the region of Andalusia, and also having historical presence in Extremadura and Region of Murcia, ...
dancer, and Domingo Alvarado, a Spanish-born flamenco singer. As a child, she lived on upper Riverside Drive (Manhattan) on the Upper West Side. She attended the Professional Children's School and studied at Fordham University. Alvarado said in a ''People'' magazine interview for the movie '' Stella'': "I lead kind of a quiet life. I just grew up that way." Alvarado more or less stays out of the limelight and is a self-described homebody; she revealed during the promotion for '' The Frighteners'', "It's just difficult to go away. I was very nervous about having to go to New Zealand for nearly seven months o make ''The Frighteners'' I was very tragically saying goodbye to everybody.""Trini Alvarado Still Fresh And Unaffected"
by Susan Stark of the '' Detroit News'', published in the '' Seattle Times'', 19 July 1996 She resides in New York City and is married to actor Robert McNeill.


Career

Alvarado made her show business debut at the age of seven when she joined her family's dance troupe,Trini alvarado biography
at the
Turner Classic Movies Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...
website
and that led to roles on stage, including the role of Melinda in Elizabeth Swados's Broadway musical '' Runaways'' in 1978. Alvarado was featured, along with Karen Evans, on the song "Lullaby From Baby to Baby", denoted by Swados as the "theme song" of the musical."The Gathering of the Runaways"
by Elizabeth Swados, at ''The Guide to Musical Theatre''s website
In 1977–78, she appeared in two '' Unicorn Tales'' television specials. The next year, she starred in '' Rich Kids'' alongside John Lithgow and Jeremy Levy, and she lent her vocals to the ending song "Happy Ida and Broken-Hearted John".Rich Kids (1979) cast and crew
from Yahoo Movies
The same year, she appeared in the '' ABC Afterschool Special'' "A Movie Star's Daughter" as Dena McKain, her first of two appearances in the series (her second was the 1981 special ''Starstruck''). In 1980, Alvarado appeared in ''
Times Square Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and Neighborhoods in New York City, neighborhood in the Midtown Manhattan section of New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway (Manhattan), ...
'' with Tim Curry and Robin Johnson, in which she and Johnson sang together "Your Daughter Is One." There followed roles in a string of TV shows and movies before she appeared in
Gillian Armstrong Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an Australian feature film and documentary film director, director, best known for ''My Brilliant Career (film), My Brilliant Career'' (1979), ''Mrs. Soffel'' (1984), ''High Tide (1987 film), Hi ...
's 1984 drama '' Mrs. Soffel''. In 1985, Alvarado played the role of
Anne Frank Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...
in the
off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...
musical ''Yours, Anne''. The following year, she starred as the title character in ''Maggie Magalita'', another off-Broadway production. Her next roles—the young Lisa Titus in the ill-fated 1987 film ''The Chair'', the tough, smart-aleck May "Mooch" Stark in the frank, girl-dominant teen movie '' Satisfaction''—led up to playing the daughter of Stella Claire (portrayed by Bette Midler), in another version of ''Stella''. Midler and Alvarado bonded on set and performed an impromptu duet of the chorus of
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The core lineup of the band comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are widely regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatle ...
' " If I Fell" during Alvarado's screen test, which led to Alvarado's being cast. After '' Stella'', Alvarado played the role of Elinor Hartley in '' American Friends'', which Michael Palin both wrote and starred. Alvarado later worked alongside John Goodman on the 1992 biopic ''
The Babe ''The Babe'' is a 1992 American Biographical film, biographical Sports film, sports drama film about the life of famed baseball player Babe Ruth, who is portrayed by John Goodman. Directed by Arthur Hiller, written by John Fusco, it was release ...
'', playing the role of Helen Woodford Ruth. Alvarado worked with director
Gillian Armstrong Gillian May Armstrong (born 18 December 1950) is an Australian feature film and documentary film director, director, best known for ''My Brilliant Career (film), My Brilliant Career'' (1979), ''Mrs. Soffel'' (1984), ''High Tide (1987 film), Hi ...
on the 1994 film adaptation of '' Little Women''. When asked about the role, she said "I am
Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...
and Meg ... is not a Hispanic, but even so they gave me the part. But I understand the situation. I understand it because sometimes I see a film about Hispanics, where none of actors is Hispanic, and I feel bad about that. I'd feel particularly bad if they hadn't allowed me to audition, when they said that they'd already seen all the Hispanics in Hollywood, which isn't true."
Little Women
', at ErasOfElegance.com, 1994]
She and her cast mates endured lessons in Victorian era, Victorian life, including proper etiquette, and restricting dresses. About the women's limiting garb, Alvarado said, "It's so obvious why women were thought of as the weaker sex. I don't know if it was a subconscious desire of designers to hold women back, but you can't even take a full breath n these dresses" Alvarado's next film was 1995's '' The Perez Family'', co-starring Alfred Molina, Anjelica Huston and Marisa Tomei. The next year saw the release of '' The Frighteners'', Peter Jackson's horror/comedy film about a con artist who sees ghosts, and '' The Christmas Tree'', the directorial debut of actress Sally Field. Alvarado is better known for the first, but '' The Frighteners'' wasn't hugely popular during its initial release. In the making-of documentary included with the revamped DVD, Alvarado admitted to enduring bruises because of the active, violent scenes in the movie and to being "cursed"; an ice cream truck from a local New Zealand vendor would go by playing " Greensleeves" every time Jackson did a close-up on her and make her break character. She appeared in the last minutes of '' Paulie'' (1998). Other major roles include a supporting part in the critically acclaimed film '' Little Children'' in 2006. She played various roles on TV, appearing alongside Eric Stoltz in 2000's ''The Last Dance''. She played the role of Samantha Loeb in the sci-fi drama '' Fringe'', appearing in two episodes in 2008 and 2009. Alvarado had a role in the films '' All Good Things'', which starred former co-star Kirsten Dunst, and '' The Good Guy'', screened at the
Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...
on 26 April 2009. Alvarado has provided the voice-over for the audio books ''Trickster's Choice'', ''Trickster's Queen'' and the series ''Alanna: Song of the Lioness Quartet'', written by Tamora Pierce. Alvarado voiced Debbie Macomber's ''Changing Habits''. In May 2014, she appeared in the episode "Forget Me" of the series '' Black Box''.


Filmography


See also

*
List of Puerto Ricans This is a list of notable people from Puerto Rico which includes people who were born in Puerto Rico (Borinquen) and people who are of full or partial Puerto Rican people, Puerto Rican descent. Puerto Rican citizens are included, as the governm ...


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alvarado, Trini 1967 births 20th-century American actresses American child actresses American actresses of Puerto Rican descent American people of Spanish descent American television actresses Living people Actresses from Manhattan Fordham University alumni American film actresses American female dancers 20th-century American dancers 21st-century American actresses American stage actresses American musical theatre actresses Hispanic and Latino American dancers Dancers from New York (state)