Claudia Cardinale died: films, loves, children, private life

TO 87 years old Claudia Cardinale died: had been hospitalized for some time/a sudden illness. The actress and muse of Italian directors such as Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini, Equipped with rare beautyhad lived in Paris for many years. Unforgettable angelica in The gotopardoideal of woman in 8 ½, He made the world of cinema fall in love but had only one great love. Thus, he defined himself: “Mother, actress, human being, this is me“.

Died Claudia Cardinale, the biography of an Italian in Tunis

Born in Tunisia in 1938 by a family of Sicilian origins but immigrant in the former Italian colony, from a very young age It seems destined for the cinema despite the rebellious and shady character And the childish dream of becoming an explorer. After winning the most beautiful Italian title in Tunisia, she is awarded with a trip to the Venice Festival And his life changes forever. On the insistence of agents and producers, who note in her an out of the ordinary photogenia, enrolled in the Experimental Center of Cinematography in Rome but abandoned, intolerant of the rules, after just a quarter.

At twenty he obtained his first significant role in The usual unknown (1958) Mario Monicelli’s Italian comedy. The success is immediate. The meeting with Pietro Germi, who chooses it for a cursed cheating (1959), It makes them understand and really appreciate the profession of the actress.

Died Claudia Cardinale, from Musa di Fellini to the Gattopardo

After acting next to Marcello Mastroianni in The beautiful antonio (1960) by Mauro Bolognini, It immerses itself in a masterful way in a dramatic and complex role in The girl with the suitcase (1961) by Valerio Zurlini. The most beautiful women’s jump in the world to committed interpreter is complete. But it is 1963 the year of the turning point.

Luchino Visconti transforms it into the unforgettable Angelica in The gotopardo Next to Burt Lancaster and Alain Delon and Federico Fellini erge to Musa and female archetype in 8½, medium. The working association with two extraordinary directors, so characteristic and artistically at the antipodes, changes in a true and lasting friendship.

From Italy to Hollywood

Beauty and skill are the perfect passport for America. He moved to Hollywood for three years And he lives in a villa sold to her by Marilyn Monroe, of whom she has an excellent memory. He works in films not exciting but with actors like John Wayne, Rita Hayworth and Marlon Brando. A wonderful friendship was born with Rock Hudson that the media transform into flirts.

The two play a lot on this fictitious relationship, which allows the actor to conceal his unformed homosexuality. Claudia Cardinal It does not abandon Italian cinema. To her are destined for unforgettable films directed by equally unforgettable directors as Once upon a time there was the West (1968) by Sergio Leone.

Love for Pasquale Squitieri and the momentary (and unwanted) farewell to the cinema

After years dedicated entirely to work, net of a relationship with the producer Franco Cristaldistarted when she was still very young, nEl 1973 meets the director and his peer Pasquale Squitieriwho directs her a year later I Guappi. An intense and passionate love is born: The actress says goodbye to Cristaldi But this creates serious working problems for the two lovers. The contract that binds the actress to the production company Vides leaves her little possibility of artistic choice and is economically disadvantageous.

For at least two years, The world of Italian cinema turns its back on its beautiful interpreter for fear of retaliation by the powerful producer. Even Visconti is forced not to choose it for The innocent. Franco Zeffirelli is the first and unique to bring it back behind a camera With a role in the script Jesus of Nazareth (1977).

Private life: the canceled marriage, violence, the secret child

That forced work stop allows her to give new priorities to her life. In 1979 his daughter Claudia was born had an Squitieri But the actress is not in her first pregnancy. In an intense interview with Enzo Biagi of 1967, The cardinal explains that he has suffered violence at 16. Despite the painful circumstances, To avoid a scandal The family and Franco Cristaldi bring it in London to end the secret pregnancy.

The eldest son Patrickwhich brings the surname of the well -known producer, initially was passed through his brother. The actress He reports that he had revised many years after his rapist and who would also have tried to recognize the child. Despite the strong feeling for Squitieri, He never wanted to get married. Indeed, remarry.

In 1966 Cristaldiat the time of their relationship, He already had a wife and could not divorce by Italian law. Thus organizes their marriage in the Unit Statesie without warning the actress. Returning to Italy, Claudia Cardinale cancels the wedding.

The recitative style

Although it was his undoubted attractive and sensuality that brought it to the world of cinema He showed, movie after movie, to be a versatile actresscapable of impersonating not a single stereotyped role of vacuous beauty but infinite shades of femininity. His prerogative was to be seen differently from each director, thus being able to face roles of sweet woman, mother, lover, wife, sinner or saint.

For Mauro Bolognini he embodied the femme fatalecapable of dominating man to ruin him. For Fellini it was the ideal of a woman: of a splendor not threatening or cruel but salvific and bright. An indomitable and elusive personality, perfectly described by the words of Luchino Viscontiwho had immense esteem for her.

“It’s a bit like a splendid cat: A Persian cat, a Sorian cat that for the moment scratches the living room cushions, But I have the exact impression that One of these days we will notice that Claudia is a tiger And it will give one of those paws that will risk killing the tamer ».

The beauty, the men and the advances of Marlon Brando

In each interview He always reiterated that he never found himself really beautifulthat true beauty in the family was his sister Blanche. So clear, blonde and with blue eyes. «Nature gave me a photogenic face. The magic of photogenia is that it gives you intensity in a scene even when you think you don’t have it ». Despite felt like a boy, An exorbitant number of Italian actors and Hollywood stars fell at his feet.

Of her, an admired David Nivenmet on the set of The pink panther (1963), He said it is the most beautiful Italian invention after spaghetti. At a dinner, Marcello Mastroianni confessed to her in front of a cumshot Catherine Deneuve to have once outstanding herself in love with her, reproaching her for never taking it seriously. Because of this sweet statement, the French actress has not given her the floor since that moment.

The most brazen and bold of all its suitors was Marlon Brando. Interviewed by Mara Venier in 2019, he said that the actor he had presented himself in the His hotel room saying that he too was of the sign of Aries and for this astral combination they would have had to make love. “I I threw it out immediately but then I regretted immediately And I said I was really a stupid! “

The transfer to Paris and late love for the theater

Due to the continuous siege of paparazzi and the scandalistic press, In 1989 the actress with her family moved to Paris, City that has lived like his real home. His career is enriched with excellent collaborations with directors like Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo) Marco Bellocchio (Henry IV) Liliana Cavani (Skin) and directed by his own partner.

In the 2000s he ventured with great success with the theaterfrom which he was held away because he had never heard at the height. Is directed by Maurizio Scaparro (The Venetian) and chooses intense roles like the toned protagonist of The sweet wing of youth (2005). Amuses in the brilliant female reinterpretation of Neil Simon’s comedy The strange couple (2018) next to Ottavia Fusco.

The last few years: the companion, the children, the civil commitment

Despite the end of the report in 1999 With Pasquale Squitieri, who then remarried with Ottavia Fusco, Claudia Cardinale It has always remained very close to the Neapolitan director. Her death in 2017 was immense pain for her. In each interview, The love of his life defines him And it seems that, after him, he had no other important ties. He was very tied to his children, who made him twice as a grandmother.

An actress very busy in the social, starting with women’s rights For Amnesty International and the fight against AIDSsince 2000 he had been ambassador of good will for Unesco. Together with his daughter Claudine, in 2023 opened the Claudia Cardinale Foundation To support young emerging artists of theater and entertainment.

The last mystery about the disease

In 2022, the newspapers reported Insistent voices of his forced hospitalization in a nursing home in the French countryside, due to a mysterious health problem. The news was then dryly denied by the family. On the Official Instagram profile his last public photo, taken during an evening dedicated to her to the Ciné du Paradis of Fontainebleau, risal to June 16, 2024.

The testimony of an extraordinary career, his unparalleled beauty and the description of himself, remains of her, which tells more than a thousand words the character and strength of the most indomitable actresses. “Without suffering it is nothing, I could not interpret and act without having not loved or crying».