Actress Theresa Russell

Theresa Russell has often played the mysterious woman in many movies.

She gained notoriety in 1980 in the psychological sexual thriller Bad Timing, in which she played a woman doomed by a fatal affair with a psychiatrist (played by Art Garfunkel).  The movie was so sensually sensationalist that it garnered hostility in the United States, at a time when cultural conservatism was on the rise.  Ms. Russell eventually married the movie's director, Britain's Nicolas Roeg, and went on to star in more of his movies (such as Insignificance, Eureka, and Aria), though they later divorced. 

One of her best known parts was the title role in Black Widow (1987) about a femme fatale who seduced wealthy men into marrying her before killing them.  It's considered by many to be a high-water mark in her career.

More recently, she's had supporting roles in TV series, including the 2005 cable miniseries Empire Falls, about a dying town in Maine.

Fun fact:  Pete Townshend of the Who claimed to have written the 1982 Who song "Athena" about her.