Marisa Allasio

She was born Maria Luisa Lucia Allasio, the daughter of Lucia Rocchietti and Federico Allasio, a successful football player (for Genoa and Torino) and latterly coach (of Bologna, Lazio and Cagliari). Educated in Genoa, Maria won a beauty pageant ("Miss Lido") at the age of fourteen. This did not go unnoticed in the press and magazines published pin-ups of her, which led to the girl pushing her parents to enroll her in Rome's Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica. Discovered there by the producer/director Carlo Ponti, she appeared on the screen from 1952 and had a leading role in the crime drama Cuore di mamma (1954), now billed as Marisa Allasio. Well-proportioned, she was soon touted as the 'Italian Jayne Mansfield', though her screen personae rarely strayed from the straight and narrow. In Italy, she became popular as Anna in Luigi Zampa's Ragazze d'oggi (1955) and as Giovanna in Dino Risi's Belle ma povere (1957), both romantic comedies. Marisa gained some international exposure through her appearance in Seven Hills of Rome (1957), starring the opera singer Mario Lanza.

Her career ended abruptly upon her marriage to Count Pier Francesco Vittorio Maria Agostino Luca Frediano Calvi di Bergolo, grandson of the former King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, on November 10 1958. As a bona fide countess, she resided in the Piedmontese Castle of Pomaro Monferrato. In a 1985 interview, she confessed that her sole regret was having spurned the role of Angelica Sedara in The Leopard (1963), which had been offered to her by director Luchino Visconti (it went to Claudia Cardinale instead).