The Italian actress and the Star of the Rose Panther dies 87 years old

Claudia Cardinale, the Italian star of Tunisian origin of the Leopard, 8 1/2 and Pink Panther, died at the age of 87.

She had a career of six decades, reaching glory during the golden age of Italian cinema, and was led by adults such as Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti.

The actress died in Nemours in France with her children, according to her agent Laurent Savry.

“She leaves us the heritage of a free woman and inspired both as a woman and as an artist,” Savry told the AFP news agency.

Born in Tunisia to Sicilian parents in April 1938, Cardinale won a beauty contest at 16 who saw her “the most beautiful Italian woman in Tunis”.

The prize was a trip to the Venice Film Festival, where it was approached by directors and producers to get involved in the cinema.

She later described her reluctance to abandon her hopes of becoming a teacher to “try this cinema”, according to the words of her father.

His beginning of a career was marked by challenges. She took small roles in adolescence when she was raped by a man she did not know.

When she learned that she was seven months pregnant during the shooting, a mentor convinced her to give her abroad to London.

For several years, she presented her son, Patrick, to people like her younger brother. She told the French newspaper Le Monde in 2017 that he was the reason for her film career, because she wanted to “earn a living and be independent”.

Because she had grown up by speaking French, Arabic and Sicilian dialect of her parents, her accent was considered unacceptable and her voice was nicknamed by other Italian actors.

She turned to glory in 1963 when she appeared in the 8 1/2 Oscar -winning of Fellini and the epic drama The Leopard, which has become a classic visconti.

While turning the films simultaneously, Cardinale was commissioned between Sicily and Rome, and said that she had to dye her hair once a week.

“Visconti wanted me to burn myself into long hair. Fellini wanted me to blond,” said Cardinale.

She worked in Hollywood in the 1960s, with Once Upon a Time in the West of Blake Edwards and, in the West, and appearing with actors such as Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson.

During his stay in the United States, Cardinale had spoken to pretending to be in a relationship with Rock Hudson actor to try to keep his homosexuality secret.

“At that time in America, if you knew you were gay, you couldn’t work in Hollywood,” she told Variety in 2017.

Critics welcomed him as “the embodiment of the post-war European glamor”.

Thinking about his career later, Cardinale recalled: “The best compliment I have ever received was from actor David Niven during the shooting of the Pink Panther.

“He said:” Claudia, with spaghetti, you are the biggest invention in Italy. “”

After separating from the Franco Cristaldi film producer in the early 1970s, she started a relationship with a lifetime with the Neapolitan director Pasquale Squitierri, with whom she had a daughter, also named Claudia.

She played in her 80s, appearing in the Swiss TV series Bulle in 2020.

In 2000, Cardinale was appointed Ambassador of UNESCO’s goodwill in recognition of her advocacy for women’s rights.

In 2002, she received a life achievement in Berlin Film Festival.

“I lived more than 150 lives: prostitute, saint, romantic, all kinds of women, and it’s wonderful to have the opportunity to change you,” she said.

The Italian Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli called him “one of the largest Italian actresses of all time”, embodying “Italian grace”.