Wade Dominguez

Oozing screen presence, with a look that says to women "I can take you or leave you, but if I take you . . . watch out," Wade Dominguez took a giant leap toward screen stardom after playing the indifferent student who thinks Michelle Pfeiffer is interested in him and not his school work in "Dangerous Minds" (1995). Dominguez was an indifferent student growing up, more interested in whatever was happening at the moment than his schoolwork. He migrated from Northern California to Los Angeles and worked as a go-go dancer, became a fixture on the club scene and sold clothes at The Beverly Center, an upscale mall. Spotted by a photographer, Dominguez began a modeling career that he now freely admits was more of a lark to meet women than a serious career. Returning to L.A., he enrolled in acting classes taught by former Oscar-nominee Jeanne Berlin. Her mother, the famed writer-director-performer Elaine May, saw Dominguez in the class and began suggesting him for roles. Although Dominguez had done a bit of acting in an American soap opera shooting in Italy, his first real role in the USA was in "Erotique" (1994), a collection of short films about women and their relationship directed by women. He appeared in a segment directed by Lizzie Borden that focused on a female phone sex operator. Following his star-making turn opposite Pfeiffer, the actor was cast as a petty thief whose wife challenges his decision to participate in a heist in "City of Industry" (1997). He was later cast alongside Melanie Griffith and Tom Berrenger in Randal Kleiser's political thriller "Reasonable Doubt" (lensed 1997).