Actress Claudia Cardinale dies at 87
1758706421
Italian actress Claudia Cardinale has passed away at the age of 87, surrounded by her children, in the French town of Nemours near Paris. The news was reported on Tuesday evening, September 23, by her agent Laurent Savry to AFP. Born in Tunisia, the French-Italian actress appeared in more than 150 films. She was the muse of legendary directors Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti.
Italy’s Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, called Cardinale “one of the greatest Italian actresses of all time.”
Claudia Cardinale was born on April 15, 1938, in La Goulette near Tunis. At the age of 17, after winning a beauty contest, she was named “the most beautiful Italian woman in Tunisia” and received a trip to the Venice Film Festival. There, she caught the attention of several directors.
In the early 1960s, Visconti cast Cardinale in Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard. She also made film history through her role in Sergio Leone’s classic 1969 western Once Upon a Time in the West. To American audiences, she was best known for her performance in The Pink Panther.
Claudia Cardinale was honored with the Golden Lion in Venice in 1993 and the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2002.
