Claudia Cardinale, the Italian movie star known for her captivating performances in The Leopard, 8½, and Once Upon a Time in the West, has died at the age of 87.
Cardinale died in Nemours, France, with her children by her side. Her agent, Laurent Savry, confirmed the news to Agence France-Presse on Tuesday. The cause of death was not immediately available.
Born in Tunis on April 15, 1938, to Francesco Cardinale and Yolanda Greco, both Sicilian immigrants, Cardinale was raised speaking French, Arabic, and Sicilian dialect. At 18, she was crowned the “Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia” at a beauty contest and won a trip to the Venice Film Festival, where she enthralled Italian media and various filmmakers.
When she was a teenager, she was raped by a film producer and became pregnant, she said in a French magazine. The identity of the father was never revealed. In 1957, she gave birth to her son, Patrick, in London. Needing to support her newborn, Cardinale signed a lengthy contract with Italian producer Franco Cristaldi, who would later become her husband in 1966 (divorced in 1975). Under his management, her life was heavily monitored and her son was raised as her younger brother, a secret that was hidden from him until he was eight years old.
Throughout her prolific career, Cardinale starred in more than 150 films, featuring across genres from comedies and crime dramas to sweeping romances and period films. For many, she would become known for her starring role in Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning masterpiece 8½ and Luchino Visconti’s screen adaption of the historical drama, The Leopard. Cardinale also featured in Hollywood films, including Blake Edwards’s comedy hit The Pink Panther with Peter Sellers.
Cardinale would continue to focus on collaborating with European filmmakers, appearing in Sergio Leone’s western Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968 and the 1982 epic adventure, Fitzcarraldo, helmed by Werner Herzog.
In a 2013 interview with The Guardian, Cardinale, who was 74 at the time and still acting, reflected on her life’s work. “I don’t want to stop!” she laughed. “This is fantastic, to continue to work. It’s important.”
