Actress Theresa Saldana who played the commissioner's wife on '90s cop drama "The Commish" and was the victim in a highly-publicized stabbing has died ... TMZ has learned.

Saldana had been hospitalized with an unknown illness and died Monday at Cedars-Sinai ... according to a member of her family.

The actress made headlines in 1982 after being stabbed by a deranged fan outside her L.A. home. A delivery man who happened to be driving by saw her and came to her rescue, and she was able to survive the attack.

Saldana also famously starred alongside Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in "Raging Bull."

She stopped acting in 2004.