Jenette Goldstein Biography

While Jenette Goldstein was in London, she had become a regular performer in the city’s theatre scene. It was during this period that she responded to an audition call for American actors with British Equity cards. She initially thought that it was for another small film or play. However, she realised that it was for something quite different when she was asked to read for a tough, macho Latina character, named 'Vasquez'. The producers liked what they heard and saw, and she was subsequently cast as smart gunner Private Vasquez in James Cameron’s directorial venture, ‘Aliens’ (1986). The sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 science fiction horror ‘Alien’ and the second movie in the Alien franchise, the film revolves around a salvage team that rescues Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), 57 years after the incidents of the original film. ‘Aliens’ was a critical as well as commercial hit like its predecessor. Besides winning a Saturn Award, Goldstein was also nominated for a DVD Exclusive Award for Best Audio Commentary (New for DVD) as part of the ‘Aliens’ cast. Her strong work ethic, creativity, and dedication to her craft impressed Cameron, and he later hired her for the role of Janelle Voight / T-1000 in ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’, the second film in the Terminator franchise. She also had a minor role of a loving Irish mother in Cameron’s romantic disaster film ‘Titanic’ (1997), which won 11 Oscars at the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony.

After the incredible success of ‘Aliens’, Goldstein starred as Diamondback in the neo-noir horror film ‘Near Dark’. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, the film tells the story of a young man from a small midwestern town who meets a family of nomadic vampires. Despite receiving rave reviews from the critics, the film was a box-office failure. Since then, however, it has garnered a cult following. Goldstein’s character is also a vampire, and she received another Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination for that role.

In 1989, she shared screen space with Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, and Joe Pesci in Richard Donner’s action thriller ‘Lethal Weapons 2’. She played Meagan Shapiro, an honest police detective who gets killed in an explosion orchestrated by Pieter Vorstedt (Derrick O'Connor). In the 1993 television film ‘Donato and Daughter’, she played a detective. In the seventh film in the Star Trek film series, ‘Star Trek Generations’, her character was a U.S.S. Enterprise-B Science Officer. She played a secondary antagonist in the 1995 action film ‘Fair Game’. In Terry Gilliam’s 1998 psychedelic satirical road film ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’, she was cast as Alice the Maid.

Goldstein worked with writer-director Adam Gierasch in the 2008 horror film ‘Autopsy’, portraying Nurse Marian. Her most recent cinematic appearance was in the 2014 comedy drama ‘Under the Hollywood Sign’.

While she has garnered much of her prominence for her work in cinema, she has, over the years, guest-starred in a number of TV shows, including ‘L.A. Law’ (1994), ‘ER’ (1998-2000), ‘Strong Medicine’ (2000), ‘Six Feet Under’ (2001), ‘Alias’ (2003), ‘24’ (2004), ‘The Inside’ (2005), and ‘A Hollywood Affair’ (2013). Goldstein has also been active as a stage actress, performing in the theatre scenes of cities like New York, London, and Los Angeles. She has acted in productions of classics like Shakespeare’s ‘Twelfth Night’ as well as modern plays like Arthur Miller’s ‘After the Fall’. At present, Goldstein is developing her own one-woman show.

Born on February 4, 1960, in Los Angeles, California, USA, Jenette Goldstein grew up in Beverly Hills. Her parents were theatre lovers, and they enrolled her at various fine-arts-oriented schools, where she often proved herself to be a young star in drama classes. On a regular basis, she took part in citywide drama competitions alongside her future colleagues Val Kilmer, Gina Gershon, Kevin Spacey and Mare Winningham. After graduating from high school, Goldstein attended London's Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and Circle in the Square Theater in New York City, earning a master’s degree in drama theory, physicality, dialects and the classics.

Jenette Goldstein is married and her husband's name is Aaron Noble.