Claudia Cardinale

Overview

Like many other female Italian film stars, Claudia Cardinale's entry into the business was by way of a beauty pageant. She was 17 years old and studying at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome when she entered a beauty contest, which resulted in her getting a succession of small film roles. Her earthy interpretations of Sicilian women got her noticed by Italian producers, and the combination of her beauty, dark, flashing eyes, explosive sexuality and genuine acting talent virtually guaranteed her stardom. After Careless (1962) she rose to the front ranks of Italian cinema, and became an international star in Federico Fellini's classic 8½ (1963) with Marcello Mastroianni. American audiences may best remember her from her starring role in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
- IMDb mini biography by: frankfob2@yahoo.com

Spoke French, Italian, English, Spanish and Arabic (from having been raised in Tunisia).
Although one of the great sex sirens of her time, she never appeared in a nude or fully topless scene.
She signed a contract forbidding her to cut her hair, marry or gain weight. Because of this, she told everyone that her newborn son (out of wedlock) was her baby brother. She did not reveal to the child that he was her son until he was 19 years old.
Famed cinematographer Conrad L. Hall called her "a cameraman's dream - a perfect piece of nature - there is not much you can do wrong in photographing her".
At the Italian Embassy in Tunis, she was voted the most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia. Her prize was a trip to Venice during the Venice Film Festival. After the festival she was offered movie roles, but refused them and returned to Tunis. However, six months later, a producer sold her on a career in movies, and she went to Rome with her parents, two brothers and a sister, taking a home in Castel Giubileo, a small town outside the city (1957).

I never felt scandal and confession were necessary to be an actress. I've never revealed myself or even my body in films. Mystery is very important.
If you're not English, you're a foreigner - so you must be sexy. It's an old British cliché.
[on acting] But to do this kind of work, you have to be very strong, otherwise you lose your personality, your identity. You don't know who you are. It's fantastic because I've been living thousands of lives, not only my life.
I wasn't speaking a word of Italian until I was 18. They had to dub my voice in my first Italian picture!
Luchino Visconti wanted me dark-haired, for Federico Fellini I had to be a blonde, I had long hair at the time and kept dyeing it from one to the other. The two directors were completely different, almost hated each other, I think.