Biography

Actress and beauty queen, born Christiane Magnani of Italian ancestry, either in Paris or in Nancy (accounts differ). She lived in Piennes in north-eastern France until the age of four, when her family moved to Loudon. Her younger sister, Georgette, was later briefly married to the American film director Vincente Minnelli.

At the age of sixteen, Martel won her first beauty pageant (Miss Châtellerault). A year later, in 1953, she became Miss France and was then crowned Miss Universe in Long Beach, California, by the actress Julie Adams. At that time, she was the first entrant from France to have won the coveted title, which came with a $32,000 sports car plus a studio contract with Universal-International. Decades later, Martel presided as one of the celebrity judges over the 1978 Miss Universe pageant, held in Acapulco, Mexico.

Her sojourn as a Hollywood starlet was undistinguished. After three minor film appearances, Martel departed the movie capital for Mexico, where she headlined in several pictures before making her swansong in the Italian sword-and-sandal epic Tharus figlio di Attila (1962). She was latterly active in Mexican television.

Martel was briefly (for 72 days) married to K&M Department Store heir Ronald Marengo. She married her second husband, the producer/director Miguel Alemán Velasco (son of Miguel Alemán Valdés, former president of the Republic of Mexico) in March 1961. Aleman went on to become Governor of the State of Veracruz in 1998, which elevated Martel to the status of First Lady of Veracruz.
- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis