Actress Claudia Cardinale dead at 87
"She leaves us the legacy of a woman who was free and full of inspiration both in her career as a woman and as an artist," said her agent, Laurent Savry.
Claudia Cardinale
French-Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, an icon of 1960s cinema, died Tuesday at the age of 87 with her children in Nemours, near Paris, where she lived. The information was confirmed by her agent to AFP.
"She leaves us the legacy of a woman who was free and full of inspiration both as a woman and as an artist," said her agent, Laurent Savry, in a message sent to the agency.
She was a favorite performer of directors such as Luchino Visconti, Federico Fellini, Richard Brooks, Henri Verneuil and Sergio Leone.
A naturalized Italian and French citizen, Claude Joséphine Rose was born in La Goulette, Tunisia, near Tunis, on April 15, 1938 to a French mother and a Sicilian father. She spoke French, Arabic and Sicilian when she began working in Italian cinema.
At 17, a beauty contest she won without even being a candidate turned her life upside down: "The Most Beautiful Italian in Tunisia" won a trip to the Venice Film Festival, where she caused a sensation among the directors.
Pregnant after a rape at 19, she abandoned her dreams of being a teacher and a scout and threw herself into filmmaking, in a hurry to make a living and be independent.
Hiding her pregnancy, she made her first appearances in the detective film "Italian Murder" and the cult comedy "Big Deal on Madonna Street" (1958) with Marcello Mastroianni and Vittorio Gassman.
Producer Franco Cristaldi became her mentor. After giving birth secretly in London, he convinced the young actress to entrust the child to her parents.
The child, Patrick, was said to be her younger brother until she revealed the truth seven years later.
Luchino Visconti's opportunity
At the same time she filmed another masterpiece, "8½."
She wowed the U.S. with Blake Edwards' "The Pink Panther" (1963) and then with Henry Hathaway's "Circus World" (1964), starring as Rita Hayworth's daughter.
Throughout her career she received the Pasinetti Award for Best Actress in 1984 (at Venice for Pasquale Squitieri's "Claretta"), the Golden Lion in 1993 at Venice and the Golden Bear in 2002 at Berlin.
She acted in more than 140 feature films.
LATEST
