Actress Elizabeth Peña passed away Tuesday in Los Angeles. She'd been suffering from cirrhosis of the liver due to alcohol. Pena was 55.
Born in New Jersey and raised in New York by her Cuban parents, she went on to have an acting career that included roles in Jacob's Ladder, Lone Star and TV's Modern Family.
In Adrian Lyne's Jacob Ladder (1990), Peña played opposite Tim Robbins. The movie's about drug experiments that were conducted on unknowing American soldiers while they fought in Vietnam. As Jacob (Robbins) suffers flashbacks, he tries to piece together the mystery of his angst. In the film's famous party scene, while Pena's Jezzie dances to James Brown's "My Thang," Jacob envisions her being taken by the devil. It's one of his many hallucinations.
Peña also appeared in Down and Out in Beverly Hills, La Bamba, Rush Hour, Drug Wars: The Camarena Story and numerous TV shows, including this year's Matador. She's survived by her husband and two children.
