Biography

Lea Padovani was born on July 28, 1923 in Montalto di Castro, Lazio, Italy. She was an actress, known for Give Us This Day (1949), Princess of Cleves (1961) and The Anatomy of Love (1954). She died on June 23, 1991 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Sultry Italian leading lady of post-WWII continental filming.

In the late 1940s, she was briefly engaged to Orson Welles - who was extremely uncomplimentary about her decades later in the biography of him written by Barbara Leaming.

Orson Welles originally cast Lea as Desdemona in his 1952 film production of Othello back in 1948. After Welles began the filming in Venice, producer Montatori Scalera informed Welles that he wanted to make Verdi's opera, not the Shakespearean play, so the money ran out and the movie was shelved. By the time the movie was made years later Lea had been replaced by Suzanne Cloutier.

Graduated in 1944 from the L'Accademia d'arte Drammatica in Rome.