Cristina Raines — Acting | Biography, Movies & Career

Biography

Cristina Raines (born February 28, 1952) is an American former actress and model who appeared in numerous films throughout the 1970s, mainly horror films and period pieces. She went on to have a prolific career as a television actress throughout the 1980s.

Born in Manila, Philippines to American parents, Raines was primarily raised in Florida. After graduating high school, she relocated to New York City to pursue a career as a model, and signed with the Ford Modeling Agency. Urged by Eileen Ford to audition for acting roles, Raines was subsequently cast as a lead in the independent horror film Hex (1973), opposite Keith Carradine and Scott Glenn. She had a minor part in the Charles Bronson-led thriller The Stone Killer, followed by a lead in the television film Sunshine, in which she played a young mother with terminal cancer.

In 1975, Raines was cast in a supporting role in Robert Altman's ensemble comedy Nashville, portraying a folk singer, followed by a lead in the supernatural horror film The Sentinel (1977), in which she starred as a model tormented by supernatural goings-on in her new apartment building. Raines also co-starred in Ridley Scott's directorial debut, The Duellists (1977), a period piece based on the Napoleonic Wars.

Raines had her first major television role in the twelve-part miniseries Centennial (1978), playing the daughter of a fur trapper in 1800s Colorado. Raines continued to act throughout the 1980s, with such film credits as the anthology horror film Nightmares (1983). She spent the majority of the decade acting in television, notably with a lead role on the NBC series Flamingo Road (1980–1982). She appeared as Poppea in the miniseries Quo Vadis? in 1985, followed by guest-starring roles on Riptide (1985), Hotel (1987), Highway to Heaven (1988) and The Highwaymen (1988). In 1991, she formally retired from acting and pursued a career as a nurse, specializing in patients undergoing kidney dialysis.

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