Italian actress and star of The Leopard, Claudia Cardinale, passes away at 87.
Claudia Cardinale, the actress best known for her roles in The Leopard, 8½, and The Pink Panther, has passed away at the age of 87. Her cinematic career stretched over sixty years, blossoming during the golden age of Italian film and earning the respect of legends like Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti.
Cardinale died at the Nemours clinic in France, surrounded by her children. Her agent, Laurent Savry, said in a statement, “She leaves us the legacy of a free and inspired woman, both as a woman and as an artist.”
Born in Tunisia in April 1938 to Sicilian parents, Claudia captured attention at 16 by winning a local beauty pageant that named her “the most beautiful Italian woman in Tunis.” The honor included a trip to the Venice Film Festival, and while there, she caught the eye of directors and producers.
Later, she recalled struggling to leave behind her dream of becoming a teacher to “give this cinema thing a go,” as her father put it. The bold decision opened the door to a remarkable legacy that continues to inspire today.
Her early rise was anything but easy. At just fifteen, she auditioned for every small-part role she could find, only to suffer a brutal assault. When she discovered she was pregnant, a mentor urged her to travel to London to have the baby quietly. Patrick was born there, and for years she called him her “younger brother” to keep the story safe from the press.
Growing up around French, Arabic, and her parents’ Sicilian dialect, her voice was often labeled “too foreign” for Italian audiences. Directors simply hired voice actors to dub her lines for the big screen.
Everything changed in 1963. She leaped to fame with Fellini’s Oscar-winning masterpiece, 8½, and appeared in Visconti’s sweeping epic, The Leopard. “Visconti asked for me with dark, long hair. Fellini insisted on blonde,” she remembered, laughing at the tug-of-war.
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The next decade whisked her to Hollywood. She sparred in comedy with Peter Sellers in The Pink Panther and rode shotgun with Charles Bronson in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West. Other co-stars included Henry Fonda and a parade of legends. By critics’ accounts, she symbolized “postwar European glamour” just by stepping onto the screen.
Years later she recalled a simple, yet lifelong, compliment from British star David Niven on the set of The Pink Panther and grinned. It was a fitting reminder she never took for granted the journey from a secret pregnancy in London to stardom on two continents.
“He told her: ‘Claudia, between you and spaghetti, Italy’s lucky to produce only the best.'”
After parting with producer Franco Cristaldi in the early ’70s, the actress started an enduring partnership with Neapolitan director Pasquale Squitieri, and together they welcomed a daughter, also named Claudia. She graced the screen well into her 80s, making a final splash in the Swiss TV series *Bulle* in 2020.
In 2000 the United Nations named her a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, applauding her tireless work for women’s rights. The Berlin Film Festival gave her a lifetime achievement award in 2002.
“I’ve lived 150 lives: the fallen, the angel, the lover, every kind of woman—wonderful to keep reinventing yourself,” she observed. Italy’s Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli praised her as “one of the greatest actresses of our national cinema,” a living symbol of “Italian grace.”
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