Claudia Cardinale
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
189
Gender
Female
Birthday
1938-04-15
Day of death
2025-09-23 (87 years old)
Place of Birth
Tunis, Tunisia
Claudia Cardinale
Biography
Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale (15 April 1938 – 23 September 2025) was an Italian actress. Regarded as one of the leading figures of Italian cinema, alongside Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, she achieved international recognition during a career spanning more than six decades. Celebrated in the 1960s as "the most beautiful woman in the world" and widely considered a sex symbol of the era, Cardinale appeared in more than 175 films, primarily in Italy and France, across genres including comedy, drama, spaghetti westerns, and historical epics. She collaborated with acclaimed directors such as Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, and Werner Herzog, and several of her films are regarded as significant works in the history of cinema. At the time of her death, she was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of European cinema. Born and raised in La Goulette, a municipality in Tunisia near Tunis, Cardinale won the "Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia" competition in 1957, the prize being a trip to Italy, which quickly led to film contracts, due above all to the involvement of producer Franco Cristaldi, who acted as her mentor for a number of years and later married her. After making her debut in a minor role with Egyptian star Omar Sharif in Goha (1958), Cardinale became one of the best-known actresses in Italy, with roles in films such as Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Girl with a Suitcase (1961), Cartouche (1962), The Leopard (1963) and Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963). From 1963, Cardinale appeared in The Pink Panther opposite David Niven. She went on to appear in the Hollywood films Blindfold (1966), Lost Command (1966), The Professionals (1966), Don't Make Waves (1967) with Tony Curtis, The Hell with Heroes (1968), The Red Tent (1969), A Fine Pair (1968), The Salamander (1981), and the Sergio Leone Western Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), a joint U.S.–Italian production, in which she was praised for her role as a former prostitute opposite Jason Robards, Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda. Jaded with Hollywood and not wanting to become a cliché, Cardinale returned to Italian and French cinema and garnered the David di Donatello for Best Actress award for her roles in The Day of the Owl (1968) and as a prostitute alongside Alberto Sordi in A Girl in Australia (1971).[1] In 1974, Cardinale met director Pasquale Squitieri, who would become her partner. She frequently featured in his films, including Blood Brothers (1974), Father of the Godfathers (1978) and Claretta (1984), the last of which won her the Nastro d'Argento Award for Best Actress. In 1982, she starred in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo as the love interest of Klaus Kinski, who raises the funds to buy a steamship in Peru. In 2010, 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. Over the years, Cardinale was outspoken about women's rights and became a UNESCO goodwill ambassador for the Defence of Women's Rights beginning in March 2000. In February 2011, the Los Angeles Times Magazine named Cardinale among the 50 most beautiful women in film history. ... Description above from the Wikipedia article Claudia Cardinale, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known For
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Bambi
The Merv Griffin Show
Champs-Elysées
Vivement dimanche
Sacrée Soirée
Midi Première
Spécial cinéma
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
Once Upon a Time in the West
The Oscars
Sergio Leone: The Way I See Things
Jesus of Nazareth
Numéro un
Numéro un
Cinépanorama
Fitzcarraldo
All Roads Lead to Rome
Midi trente
Lost Command
Nobili bugie
Rudy Valentino
The Leopard
Rogue City
Rocco and His Brothers
Reflets de Cannes
Ulisse - Il piacere della scoperta
8½
The Audience
Bankers Also Have Souls
Circus World
The Battle of Austerlitz
Samedi soir
The Pariah
The String
A Dying Breed: The Making of 'The Leopard'
The Queens
Blood Brothers
Il gattopardo: Viaggio della memoria
The Pink Panther
Téléthon
Cartouche
The Legend of Frenchie King
The Ruffian
Auguste
Stars 90
Last Stop
Careless
The Dolphins
The Salamander
The Skin
Something to Do with Death
The Professionals
Blindfold
One Russian Summer
Escape to Athena
Sandra
Stupor Mundi
Luchino Visconti: Between Truth and Passion
588 rue Paradis
Il bell'Antonio
The Silent Mountain
Bebo's Girl
The Magnificent Cuckold
Big Deal on Madonna Street
A View of Love
Fiasco in Milan
Time of Indifference
Girl with a Suitcase
The Story of Film: An Odyssey
A Man in Love
Fellinopolis
My Best Fiend
The Red Tent
The Wages of Sin
A Summer in La Goulette
The Day of the Owl
Don't Make Waves
Son of the Pink Panther
Diary of a Telephone Operator
3 Strangers in Rome
Drums of Fire
The French Revolution
The Conspirators
The Facts of Murder
La Loi de Julien, Le bon fils
Nonnas on the Run
Fellini: I'm a Born Liar
An Opera of Violence
Venetian Honeymoon
The Gun
Sergio Leone, une Amérique de légende
Once Upon a Time: Sergio Leone
Becoming Italian with Signora Enrica
And Now... Ladies and Gentlemen...
Burden of Dreams
La Folle Histoire de Jean-Paul Belmondo
Blonde in Black Leather
Famous T & A
Fire's Share
Woman of Wonders
The Magic of Fellini
Marcello, una vita dolce
Midnight Pleasures
Mother
Little Girl in Blue Velvet
Hiver 54, l'abbé Pierre
The Artist and the Model
Piccolina bella
Conversation Piece
Gebo and the Shadow
Princess Daisy
The Lions Are Loose
Si salvi chi vuole
Il giorno della Shoah
The Life of Mirrors
Upstairs and Downstairs
The Adventures of Gerard
Pietro Germi - The Good, The Beautiful and The Bad
A Fine Pair
Next Summer
La Traversée du désir
Joy de V.
Belmondo by Belmondo
The Hell with Heroes
A Common Sense of Modesty
I Am the Law
Effie Gray
Claretta
Claudia Cardinale, la créature du secret
Libera, My Love
Nostromo
The Demon Stirs
Una gita a Roma
Li chiamarono... briganti!
We Are Cinema
The Blind and the Cardinal
The French Revolution
Il falso bugiardo
The Last Sequence
Act of Sorrow
The Island of Forgiveness
Alberto il grande
Visconti: La verdad del melodrama
Il bello delle donne... alcuni anni dopo
Les Anneaux d'Or
Popsy Pop
Twice Upon a Time in the West
A Rose for Everyone
The Magistrate
Goodbye & Amen
Belmondo, itinéraire...
Desert of Fire
Monicelli: La versione di Mario
Cherche fiancé tous frais payés
Desert of Fire
Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti
Naso di cane
Hollywood Invasion
The Lovemakers
Dios de monoambiente
Corleone
The Man with the Cigar in His Mouth
Father
South Wind
Night of 100 Stars II
Henry IV
Alex et Marie
Riches, belles, etc.
Luchino Visconti
A Girl in Australia
Marcello Mastroianni, latin lover
Bulle
History
Flash – Der Fotoreporter
Cinéma Jacques Perrin
10-07: L'affaire Zeus
Mia, Liebe meines Lebens
An Italian Indian: The Pink Panther Princess With Claudia Cardinale
Second to Nun
Goha
Gina, Sophia, Claudia, trois symboles de la féminité à l'italienne
The Years of Lost Images
Nana Mouskouri, Momente ihres Lebens
Elles ne pensent qu'à ça...
Rumore
Man & Wife, Cop & Crook
Claudia la mystérieuse
Por un puñado de sueños
