Yancy Butler

Yancy Victoria Butler (born July 2, 1970) is an American television and movie actress known for her roles as Natasha Binder in the 1993 John Woo film Hard Target and as Detective Sara Pezzini on the TNT supernatural drama Witchblade. --- Butler was born in Greenwich Village, New York City. She is the daughter of Leslie (née Vega), a theatre company manager, and Joe Butler, drummer for the 1960s rock group The Lovin' Spoonful. Butler's first major role was in the television series Mann & Machine in 1992, in which she played an android police officer partnered with a human detective. The series was set in Los Angeles in the near future. The series was co-created by Dick Wolf, of Law & Order fame. A year later, she starred in her second series, South Beach also for Dick Wolf, in which she played a con artist and thief who made a deal with the federal government: in exchange for their wiping of her criminal record, she performs certain tasks for them. Butler's first film appearance was a small supporting role in the 1979 slasher film Savage Weekend. Her next film appearance was a starring role in John Woo's 1993 film, Hard Target, featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme. She then starred in the 1994 film Drop Zone, featuring Wesley Snipes. Butler starred in the made-for-television film Witchblade (2000) and the subsequent television series, adapted from the ongoing comic book of the same title; the TV series ran for two seasons on the Turner Network Television network (TNT) for a total of 23 episodes. The series has a cult following, and was ranked seventh in the Top 10 Basic Cable Dramas for 2002 (Multichannel News, February 24, 2003). On June 10, 2002, Butler won a Saturn Award for Best Actress in a Television Series, at the 29th Annual Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Awards ceremony, for her performances in Witchblade.