Elizabeth Peña September 23 1961 October 14 2014 was an American actress and the daughter of a theatercompany cofounder who has also compiled experience as a television director in her own right Peña was born in Elizabeth New Jersey daughter of Estella Margarita née Toirac an arts administrator and producer and Mario Peña the Cubanborn actor writer and director who jointly founded the Latin American Theatre Ensemble It is unknown whether Peña was named after the town of her birth Peña graduated from New Yorks High School of Performing Arts in 1977 Her classmates included Ving Rhames alongside whom she would later costar in Jacobs Ladder and Esai Morales alongside whom she would later costar in La Bamba She is also a founding member of the Hispanic Organization of Latin Actors In 1979 Peña appeared in her first film El Super an exceptionally moving and melancholy comedy about a family of lowermiddleclass Cuban refugees attempting to adjust to life in Spanish Harlem New York City Peña worked once again with film director Leon Ichaso in his next feature Crossover Dreams opposite Ruben Blades Peña has appeared in movies such as La Bamba Down and Out in Beverly Hills Lone Star Vibes and Rush Hour In 2002 she starred in Showtimes Resurrection Blvd as Tia Bibi Corrades in the episode Justicia which she also directed During the next year 2003 she appeared in and directed It Was Fun While It Lasted an episode of The Brothers Garcia She also provided the voice of the character Mirage in Pixars animated film The Incredibles She guest starred in the 18th episode of Numb3rs Season Two as Sonya Benavides Although the actress does speak Spanish she does not dub her own voice for Spanish releases Peña is also noted for having starred in I Married Dora a sitcom that lasted only 13 episodes in 1987 as Dora Calderon the Dora of the shows title In the final show the cast broke the fourth wall of suspended disbelief by announcing their cancellation oncamera and taking a curtain call Writerdirector John Sayles produced the critically acclaimed but shortlived television series Shannons Deal 19891991 costarring Peña alongside series lead Jamey Sheridan In 1996 Sayles wrote and directed the mystery film Lone Star and again cast her in a costarring role Peña died on October 14 2014 at CedarsSinai Medical Center in Los Angeles California at the age of 55
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