Description:
Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette, a neighborhood of Tunis, French protectorate of Tunisia.
Her mother, Yolande Greco, was born in Tunisia to Sicilian emigrants from Trapani. Her maternal grandparents had a small maritime construction firm in Trapani but then settled in La Goulette, where there was a large Italian community. Her father was a Sicilian railway worker, born in Gela.
Her native languages were French, Tunisian Arabic, and the Sicilian language of her parents. She did not learn to speak Italian until she had already begun to be cast for Italian films.
Cardinale received her
Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette, a neighborhood of Tunis, French protectorate of Tunisia.
Her mother, Yolande Greco, was born in Tunisia to Sicilian emigrants from Trapani. Her maternal grandparents had a small maritime construction firm in Trapani but then settled in La Goulette, where there was a large Italian community. Her father was a Sicilian railway worker, born in Gela.
Her native languages were French, Tunisian Arabic, and the Sicilian language of her parents. She did not learn to speak Italian until she had already begun to be cast for Italian films.
Cardinale received her education at the Saint-Joseph-de-l'Apparition school of Carthage which she attended along with her younger sister Blanche.
She then studied at the Paul Cambon School, where she graduated with the intention to become a teacher. As a teenager she was described as "silent, weird, and wild", and like other girls of her generation was fascinated by Brigitte Bardot who exploded onto the scene in the 1956 film And God Created Woman, directed by Roger Vadim.
Cardinale's first contact with the world of cinema was participating in, along with classmates, a short film by French director René Vautier, Anneaux d'or, successfully presented at the Berlin Film Festival. The film made her into a minor local celebrity, and led to her being spotted by Jacques Baratier who wanted an actress of Tunisian nationality in his film Goha opposite Egyptian actor Omar Sharif, which marked her film debut.
The turning point came in 1957, when the Italian cinema in Tunis organized a competition to find the "Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia", with the prize being a trip to Venice during the Venice Film Festival. She was spotted there by film producers and was invited to attend the Experimental Center of Cinematography in Rome under Tina Lattanzi. She briefly attended but found it an unsatisfactory experience, displaying a poor attitude to the job of an actress, exacerbated by the difficulties with the Italian language.
She abandoned her studies after three months and decided to return home, earning herself a cover story in the popular weekly Epoca because of her unexpected decision to turn her back on cinema.
Franco Cristaldi largely managed her early career, and she was married to him from 1966 until 1975.
Under the new contract, in 1958 Cardinale had a role opposite leading Italian actors Vittorio Gassman, Totò, Marcello Mastroianni and Renato Salvatori in Mario Monicelli's international successful criminal comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street (I soliti ignoti). She portrayed Carmelita, a girl locked up in the house by her brother. The comedy was major huge success, and Cardinal became instantly recognizable, and some newspapers were already referring to her as "the girlfriend of Italy". Later that year she had a leading role opposite Yvonne Monlaur in Claudio Gora's romantic comedy Three Strangers in Rome.
Claudia Cardinale, famed for her earthy sexuality and classiness, made her mark on Italian cinema in her first two film roles: in Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 and Luchino Visconti's The Leopard.
Her first U.S. films were Henry Hathaway's Circus World, Richard Brooks' The Professionals and Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. Among her numerous credits are Luchino Visconti's Conversation Piece and Werner Herzog's Fitzcarrraldo.
Claudia Cardinale met Italian film producer Franco Cristaldi at the 1964 Academy Awards and was married to him from 1966 until their divorce in 1975.
She has lived with Pasquale Squitieri, an Italian film director, since 1975. Cardinale has two children: Patrizio, who was born out of wedlock when she was 19 and later adopted by Cristaldi, and Claudia, whose biological father is Squitieri. She is fluent in Sicilian, Arabic, French, Italian, English, and Spanish.
Cardinale is a political liberal who has supported feminist causes over the years. She has frequently stated her pride in her Tunisian background and has great roots in Arabic culture – as evidenced by her book Ma Tunisie and her appearance as herself in the Tunisian film Un été à La Goulette ("A Summer in La Goulette"). She has been a UNESCO goodwill ambassador for the Defense of Women's Rights since March 2000,[57] and was a goodwill ambassador for the UNESCO World Water Day for 2006.
She published an autobiography, with Anne Mori, Moi Claudia, Toi Claudia in 1995. Cardinale has been a regular attendee of the Academy Awards.
She was awarded an honorary Golden Lion at the 1993 Venice Film Festival, and an honorary Golden Bear award at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival. The Los Angeles Times Magazine, in a February 2011 online feature, named Cardinale among the 50 most beautiful women in film history. Cardinale said of her acting, "I never felt scandal and confession were necessary to be an actress. I've never revealed my self or even my body in films. Mystery is very important."
Filmography
-Cinema
Goha (1958)
I soliti ignoti (1958)
Three Strangers in Rome (1958)
Vento del sud (1959)
Il magistrato (1959)
La prima notte (1959)
Anneaux d'or (1959) – Short film
Un maledetto imbroglio (1959)
Upstairs and Downstairs (1959)
Il bell'Antonio (1960)
Napoleone ad Austerlitz (1960)
Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti (1960)
Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
I Delfini (1960)
Girl with a Suitcase (1961)
La Viaccia (1961)
Les Lions sont lâchés (1961)
Auguste (1961) – Cameo
Cartouche (1962)
Senilità (1962)
8½ (1963)
The Leopard (1963)
The Pink Panther (1963)
La ragazza di Bube (1963)
Gli indifferenti (1964)
Circus World (1964)
Il magnifico cornuto (1964)
Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa (1965)
Blindfold (1965)
Lost Command (1966)
The Professionals (1966)
Sex Quartet (1966)
Una rosa per tutti (1967)
Don't Make Waves (1967)
La amante estelar (1968) – Short film
Il giorno della civetta (1968)
The Hell with Heroes (1968)
Ruba al prossimo tuo (1968)
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
Nell'anno del Signore (1969)
Certo certissimo ... anzi probabile (1969)
The Legend of Frenchie King (1971)
Bello, onesto, emigrato Australia sposerebbe compaesana illibata (1971)
L'udienza (1972)
Il clan dei marsigliesi (1972)
Il giorno del furore (1973)
I guappi (1974)
Conversation Piece (1974) – Cameo as the professor's wife
Libera, amore mio (1975)
A mezzanotte va la ronda del piacere (1975)
Qui comincia l'avventura (1975)
Il comune senso del pudore (1976)
Il prefetto di ferro (1977)
Goodbye & Amen - L'uomo della CIA (1977)
Corleone (1978)
Una donna due passioni (La part du feu) (1978)
L'amante proibita (La petite fille en velours bleu) (1978)
L'arma (1978)
Escape to Athena (1979)
Si salvi chi vuole (1980)
The Salamander (1981)
The Skin (1981)
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
Le cadeau (1982)
Le Ruffian (fr) (1983)
Henry IV (1984)
Claretta (1984)
La donna delle meraviglie (1985)
Next Summer (1985)
A Man in Love (Un homme amoureux) (1987)
Blu elettrico (1988)
Hiver 54, l'abbé Pierre (1989)
Atto di dolore (1990)
La battaglia dei tre tamburi di fuoco (La batalla de los Tres Reyes) (1990)
Mayrig (1991)
588, rue Paradis (1992)
Son of the Pink Panther (1993)
Elles ne pensent qu'à ça... (1994)
Un été à La Goulette (1996) – Cameo
Nostromo (1997) (TV)
Sous les pieds des femmes (1997)
Stupor Mundi (1997)
Riches, belles, etc. (1998)
Un café... l'addition (1999) – Short film
Li chiamarono... briganti! (1999)
And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen (2002)
Le démon de midi (2005)
Cherche Fiance Tous Frais Payes (2007)
Le Fil (2009)
Signora Enrica (2010)
Un balcon sur la mer (2010) – Cameo
Father (2011)
Joy de V. (2011)
Gebo et l'ombre (2012)
The Artist and the Model (2012)
Effie (2012)
Deauville (2012)
Piccolina bella (2012)
The Silent Mountain (2013)
Claretta (1984)
Television
Jesus of Nazareth (1977)
Princess Daisy (1983)
La Storia (1986)
Naso di cane (1986)
La Révolution française (1989)
Flash - Der Fotoreporter, episode Das Zweite Gesicht der Aida (1993)
Mayrig (1993)
10-07: L'affaire Zeus (1995)
Nostromo (1996)
Deserto di fuoco (1997)
Mia per sempre (1998)
Élisabeth - Ils sont tous nos enfants (2000)
Hold-up à l'italienne (2008)
Il giorno della Shoah (2010)
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Tags: Actress (31), Italian (19), Brunette (16), Beautiful (15), Ugly (8), European (7), Born 1938 (7), Stunning (6), Female (5), Sultry (5), Hot (4), Goddess (4), Baby Face (4), Tunisian (4), I Would Do Her (4), Perfection (3), Gorgeous (3), Smile (3)
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