Renowned Italian actress Claudia Cardinale died at the age of 87 in Nemours, near Paris, her representative Laurent Savry told AFP on the evening of September 23. She passed away surrounded by her children.
Born in Tunisia to a family of French and Italian heritage, Cardinale starred in more than 150 films and was a muse to acclaimed directors such as Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti, reports Deutsche Welle.
For Armenian audiences, she is best remembered for playing the mother of the protagonist in Henri Verneuil’s film Mayrig. In 2010, Cardinale visited Armenia as a guest of the Golden Apricot International Film Festival.
Italy’s Minister of Culture, Alessandro Giuli, described her as “one of the most powerful Italian actresses of all time.”
Claudia Cardinale was born on April 15, 1938, in La Goulette, near Tunis. At 17, she won a beauty contest titled “The Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia,” earning a trip to the Venice Film Festival, where she immediately caught the attention of several filmmakers.
In the early 1960s, Visconti cast her in Rocco and His Brothers and The Leopard. She also gained international fame with her role in Sergio Leone’s western Once Upon a Time in the West. American audiences most fondly recall her from The Pink Panther.
Throughout her career, Cardinale received numerous awards, including the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival in 1993 and the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002.
