This attractive, dark-haired New York stage actress first attracted notice as an unlikely Prince of Denmark in the New York Shakespeare Festival's 1983 production of "Hamlet". The Connecticut native came to the stage from Juilliard and appeared in such shows as "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (1982, as Hippolyta), "Uncle Vanya" (1983), "Tomorrow's Monday" (1985) and "Largo Desolato" (1986).

Venora made her film debut as a bit player in Bob Fosse's "All That Jazz" (1979), but her breakthrough came as a woman being stalked by beasts in "Wolfen" (1981). She briefly appeared as Gloria Swanson in