Claude Josephine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale is an Italian actress.
85 Facts About Claudia Cardinale
2.
From 1963, Claudia Cardinale appeared in The Pink Panther opposite David Niven.
3.
Claudia Cardinale went on to appear in the Hollywood films Blindfold, Lost Command, The Professionals, Don't Make Waves with Tony Curtis, The Hell with Heroes, and the Sergio Leone Western Once Upon a Time in the West, a joint US-Italian production, in which she was praised for her role as a former prostitute opposite Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, and Henry Fonda.
4.
Jaded with the Hollywood film industry and not wanting to become a cliche, Claudia Cardinale returned to Italian and French cinema, and garnered the David di Donatello for Best Actress award for her roles in Il giorno della civetta and as a prostitute alongside Alberto Sordi in A Girl in Australia.
5.
In 1974, Claudia Cardinale met director Pasquale Squitieri, who would become her partner, and she frequently featured in his films, including I guappi, Corleone and Claretta, the last of which won her the Nastro d'Argento Award for Best Actress.
6.
In 2010, Claudia Cardinale received the Best Actress Award at the 47th Antalya "Golden Orange" International Film Festival for her performance as an elderly Italian woman who takes in a young Turkish exchange student in Signora Enrica.
7.
Outspoken on women's rights causes over the years, Claudia Cardinale has been a UNESCO goodwill ambassador for the Defence of Women's Rights since March 2000.
8.
Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Josephine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette, a neighbourhood of Tunis, Tunisia, on 15 April 1938.
9.
Claudia Cardinale's mother, Yolande Greco like her was born in Tunisia to Sicilian emigrants from Trapani.
10.
Claudia Cardinale's father, Francesco Cardinale, was a railway worker, born in Gela, Sicily.
11.
Claudia Cardinale did not learn to speak Italian until she had already begun to be cast for Italian films.
12.
Claudia Cardinale was educated at the Saint-Joseph-de-l'Apparition school of Carthage, which she attended along with her younger sister Blanche.
13.
Claudia Cardinale then studied at the Paul Cambon School, where she graduated with the intention of becoming a teacher.
14.
Claudia Cardinale attended briefly as, despite her extremely photogenic looks, she had trouble with her acting assignments.
15.
Claudia Cardinale left at the end of her first term and decided to return home, earning herself a cover story in the popular weekly Epoca triggered by her unexpected decision to turn her back on a career as a film star.
16.
Back in Tunis Claudia Cardinale discovered unexpectedly that she was pregnant, the result of what she later described as a "terrible" relationship with a Frenchman, some 10 years her senior, which began when she was only 17 and lasted for about a year.
17.
Claudia Cardinale solved her problems by signing a seven-year exclusive contract with Franco Cristaldi's production company Vides.
18.
Under the new contract, in 1958, Claudia Cardinale was given a minor role with Italian actors Vittorio Gassman, Toto, Marcello Mastroianni, and Renato Salvatori in Mario Monicelli's internationally successful criminal comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street.
19.
Claudia Cardinale portrayed Carmelita, a Sicilian girl virtually imprisoned in her home by her overpowering brother.
20.
Claudia Cardinale simply explained that she had gone to England to learn English for a film.
21.
For seven years, Claudia Cardinale kept her secret, not only from the public but from her own son, Patrick, who grew up in the family with her parents and sister more or less as a brother until the day Enzo Biagi, a journalist, discovered the truth.
22.
Claudia Cardinale starred opposite Pietro Germi in his crime film The Facts of Murder, an important assignment for her in mastering the craft of acting while learning to feel at ease in front of the camera.
23.
Claudia Cardinale considered it to have been her first real test as an actress.
24.
Claudia Cardinale then played the role of Maria in Ralph Thomas's British film Upstairs and Downstairs, which starred Michael Craig and Anne Heywood.
25.
In 1960, Claudia Cardinale starred opposite Marcello Mastroianni in Mauro Bolognini's Golden Leopard-winning drama film Il bell'Antonio.
26.
Claudia Cardinale next portrayed Pauline Bonaparte in Abel Gance's French film Napoleone ad Austerlitz, and after appearing opposite Gassman and Salvatori in the sequel to Big Deal on Madonna Street, Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti, she portrayed Ginetta, the fiancee of Spiros Focas, alongside Salvatori and Alain Delon in Luchino Visconti's critically acclaimed Rocco and His Brothers.
27.
In 1961, Claudia Cardinale portrayed a sultry nightclub singer and young mother in Valerio Zurlini's Girl with a Suitcase.
28.
Claudia Cardinale taught me everything, without ever making demands on me.
29.
Later in 1961, Claudia Cardinale starred as a prostitute opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo in Bolognini's La Viaccia.
30.
At the time, Claudia Cardinale was not considered comparable to the two divas of Italian cinema, Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, but several newspapers and magazines including Paris Match began to consider her to be a credible young rival to Brigitte Bardot.
31.
Claudia Cardinale played Angiolina, the romantic interest of Anthony Franciosa in Bolognini's Senilita, a character which film writer Jacek Klinowski describes as "a spirited and strikingly beautiful twenty-year-old".
32.
Claudia Cardinale remarked to him: "I used my body as a mask, as a representation of myself".
33.
Claudia Cardinale was amused to discover that the interview had inspired the writer to publish La dea dell'amore the following year, in which one of the characters, with her fine physical appearance and natural curves, closely resembled Claudia Cardinale.
34.
Claudia Cardinale participated in the two films during exactly the same period, frequently moving from one to the other and experiencing the strictly planned approach of Visconti which contrasted strongly with Fellini's much more relaxed style and his almost total reliance on improvisation.
35.
Claudia Cardinale remembered Visconti's set as having an almost religious atmosphere, everything focused on the film, far removed the outside world.
36.
Claudia Cardinale acted in her first American film when she played Princess Dala, a wealthy aristocratic woman who is the love and jewellery interest of David Niven in the Cortina d'Ampezzo-set The Pink Panther.
37.
In 1964, Claudia Cardinale starred alongside Rod Steiger and Shelley Winters in Francesco Maselli's Italian-made Time of Indifference.
38.
Claudia Cardinale told of how she benefited from the arrangement, explaining it was an American initiative at a time when they invited all the successful European actresses to perform in their pictures, hoping to create a monopoly.
39.
Claudia Cardinale first starred in the Henry Hathaway's Hollywood picture Circus World opposite John Wayne and Rita Hayworth, playing the daughter of Hayworth, who performs with her as a mother-daughter circus act.
40.
Claudia Cardinale was at the height of her sensuality at the time, but later the film only brought back unpleasant memories for her as she experienced little empathy with the director Antonio Pietrangeli, while the male star Ugo Tognazzi tried to seduce her.
41.
In 1965, Claudia Cardinale appeared in Visconti's Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa, known as Sandra in the US and Of These Thousand Pleasures in the UK, playing a Holocaust survivor who may have had an incestuous relationship with her brother.
42.
Claudia Cardinale became good friends with Hudson, who proved to be very protective of her, knowing her discomfort outside of Italy.
43.
In 1966, a photograph of Claudia Cardinale was featured in the original gatefold artwork to Bob Dylan's album Blonde on Blonde, but it was used without her permission and removed from later pressings.
44.
Claudia Cardinale played a Mexican marquessa in Richard Brooks' Western The Professionals, uniting her on screen with Burt Lancaster in what she considered to be her best American film.
45.
Claudia Cardinale went ahead with the ceremony but was concerned about sacrificing the rights she had to her child Patrick.
46.
Claudia Cardinale realised she was increasingly unable to make decisions about her own life.
47.
In 1968, Claudia Cardinale featured opposite Franco Nero in The Day of the Owl, in a David di Donatello for Best Actress-winning performance.
48.
Claudia Cardinale reunited with Rock Hudson in the Italian-made criminal comedy A Fine Pair under director Francesco Maselli.
49.
Claudia Cardinale appeared alongside Rod Taylor in The Hell with Heroes and starred in one of her best-known roles as former prostitute Jill McBain in Sergio Leone's epic Western Once Upon a Time in the West.
50.
In 1970, Claudia Cardinale starred opposite Peter McEnery and Eli Wallach in Jerzy Skolimowski's comedy film The Adventures of Gerard, based on The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle.
51.
In 1972, Claudia Cardinale appeared in Marco Ferreri's L'udienza, which was screened at the 22nd Berlin International Film Festival.
52.
Claudia Cardinale featured in La Scoumoune with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Michel Constantin.
53.
In 1975, Claudia Cardinale played the daughter of a political exile in Mauro Bolognini's Libera, My Love, a character who becomes "increasingly incensed by the fascist government of Italy and makes a number of bold and very personal gestures against it".
54.
Claudia Cardinale starred in her husband's Il prefetto di ferro, which tells the story of Cesare Mori, an Italian prefect that before and during the Fascist period was best known as "the Iron Prefect".
55.
In 1982, Claudia Cardinale appeared in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo, playing a successful brothel owner who funds Klaus Kinski's purchase of an old steamship in South America.
56.
Claudia Cardinale pointed out that although Cardinale's screen time in the film was not substantial, she set its comic tone; he praised the way she managed to turn Kinski, renowned for his volatile temperament and portrayals of megalomaniacs and criminals, into a "genuinely charming screen presence", adding a new dimension to his acting career.
57.
In 1983, Claudia Cardinale had a role in the Waris Hussein miniseries Princess Daisy, and featured alongside Lino Ventura and Bernard Giraudeau in the French-Canadian film Le Ruffian.
58.
In 1985, Claudia Cardinale starred opposite Ben Gazzara and Lina Sastri in Alberto Bevilacqua's La donna delle meraviglie.
59.
In 1986, Claudia Cardinale was involved in the making of two films for television.
60.
In Comencini's La storia, Claudia Cardinale portrayed a widow raising a son during World War II.
61.
In 1987, Claudia Cardinale starred opposite Peter Coyote, Greta Scacchi, and Jamie Lee Curtis in Diane Kurys's film A Man in Love, Kurys's first English-language feature.
62.
In 1990, Claudia Cardinale starred opposite Bruno Cremer in Squitieri's Atto di dolore, and appeared in the Morocco-set Soviet-Italian production, La battaglia dei tre tamburi di fuoco.
63.
In 1991, Claudia Cardinale featured alongside Richard Berry and Omar Sharif in Henri Verneuil's Mayrig, a film about the struggles of an Armenian family that emigrates to Marseilles from Turkey after the Armenian genocide of 1915.
64.
In 1993, Claudia Cardinale won the Leone d'oro alla carriera award at the Venice Film Festival, in which she was honoured along with Roman Polanski, Robert De Niro, and Steven Spielberg.
65.
Claudia Cardinale agreed to reunite with Blake Edwards, Herbert Lom, and Burt Kwouk to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Pink Panther by making Son of the Pink Panther.
66.
In 1994, Claudia Cardinale had a role in Charlotte Dubreuil's Elles ne pensent qu'a ca.
67.
In 1997, Claudia Cardinale featured in the British-Italian television drama miniseries Nostromo, directed by Alastair Reid and produced by Fernando Ghia of Pixit Productions, a co-production with Radiotelevisione Italiana, Television Espanola, and WGBH Boston.
68.
Later in 1997, Claudia Cardinale appeared in the films Sous les pieds des femmes and her husband's Stupor Mundi, in which she portrayed Constance of Aragon.
69.
In 1998, Claudia Cardinale portrayed the mother of Lola Naymark in the French picture Riches, belles, etc.
70.
In 2000, Claudia Cardinale embarked on her stage career, starring in Maurizio Scaparro's stage production of La Venexiana, adapted by Rene de Ceccatty, at the Theatre du Rond-Point in Paris.
71.
Claudia Cardinale appeared in her husband's television film, Elisabeth - Ils sont tous nos enfants.
72.
Two years later, Claudia Cardinale went on a theatrical tour of Italy, performing in Luigi Pirandello's Come tu mi vuoi, which Squitieri directed.
73.
Claudia Cardinale appeared as what Roger Ebert described as a "faded countess" opposite Jeremy Irons in Claude Lelouch's thriller film And Now.
74.
In 2007, Claudia Cardinale appeared in the Aline Issermann comedy film Cherche fiance tous frais payes, opposite Alexandra Lamy and Bruno Salomone, in a role which Patrick Besson described as "atrocious".
75.
In 2010, Claudia Cardinale received the Golden Orange Best Actress Award at the 47th Antalya "Golden Orange" International Film Festival for her performance as an elderly Italian woman who takes in a young Turkish exchange student in Signora Enrica.
76.
In 2012, Claudia Cardinale featured opposite Jeanne Moreau and Michael Lonsdale in the final feature film to be directed by Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira, Gebo and the Shadow.
77.
Gossner described her as "a terrific spirit on the set", and noted that Claudia Cardinale told the production team "legendary stories" about Marcello Mastroianni.
78.
In 2014, Claudia Cardinale portrayed a "sympathetic Italian chaperone" viscountess in the British period drama film Effie Gray, which was written by Emma Thompson and featured Dakota Fanning in the lead role.
79.
Claudia Cardinale met the Italian film producer Franco Cristaldi in 1958.
80.
Claudia Cardinale lived with Pasquale Squitieri, an Italian film director, for 42 years, from 1975 until Squitieri died on 18 February 2017, aged 78.
81.
Claudia Cardinale is fluent in Arabic, French, Italian, English, and Spanish.
82.
Claudia Cardinale is a political liberal who has supported feminist causes over the years.
83.
Claudia Cardinale has been a UNESCO goodwill ambassador for the Defence of Women's Rights since March 2000, and was a goodwill ambassador for the UNESCO World Water Day for 2006.
84.
Claudia Cardinale has been a regular attendee of the Academy Awards.
85.
Claudia Cardinale's awards have included an honorary Golden Lion at the 1993 Venice Film Festival, and an Honorary Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival.