- Born
- Died
- Birth nameSoraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary
- Soraya Esfandiary, second wife of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, acted in one film: an Italian film cut in three parts directed by Michelangelo Antonioni called The Three Faces (1965) ("Three Faces of a Woman"). This was shot a few years after Soraya (who couldn't have children) and the Shah had divorced. Despite a promising debut, she did not pursue an acting career. She wrote her memoirs published in French under the title "Le Palais des solitudes" in the 1990 which included a reprint of her first biography and a recent novel, "Princesse d'argile". Ever since her divorce, Soraya has essentially mingled in the circles of the European Gotha.
- IMDb mini biography by: Darius KADIVAR
- SpouseMohammad Reza Pahlavi(February 12, 1951 - April 6, 1958) (divorced)
- Lived with Franco Indovina in Rome after they met on the set of The Three Faces (1965); their relationship ended with his death.
- Allegedly, the contract with producer Dino De Laurentiis forbade her to smile because the tale of the "sad empress" created by newspapers was thought to be useful for advertising the movie The Three Faces (1965).
- As the second wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Persia, she was only Queen consort, while his third wife Empress Farah Diba became Shahbanu (Empress) as the Shah declared himself the Emperor of Iran and Iran an Empire during his third and final marriage.
- Firstborn child of Khalil Esfandiary, a notable Iranian ambassador in West Germany in the 1950s, and his German wife Eva Klein.
- Is buried in the Westfriedhof, a cemetery in Munich, Germany.
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