A sexy blonde, Maria Pitillo has made steady progress in show business since cashing her first professional paycheck for a Pepto-Bismol commercial. She attracted attention as a Southern troublemaker on ABC's daytime drama "Ryan's Hope" in the mid-1980s and made her feature debut as a masseuse in Brian De Palma's "Wise Guys" (1986). Pitillo landed her first significant screen role in "What If I'm Gay?" (1987), a "CBS Schoolbreak Special", then played prominent roles in "Spike of Bensonhurst" (1988, as Spike's girlfriend) and "She-Devil" (1989). She delivered an incisive cameo as Mary Pickford
