The renowned Italian actress Claudia Cardinale has died in France at the age of 87.
According to the newspaper Corriere della Sera, her agent, Laureana Salva, reported the news.
Cardinale (Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale) passed away surrounded by her children in the town of Nemours.
“She left us a legacy of a free and inspired woman—both as a woman and as an artist,” Salva noted.
Claudia Cardinale was born to Sicilian parents in Tunis on April 15, 1938. At the age of 16, she won a beauty contest, which earned her a trip to the Venice Film Festival.
She was a glamorous icon of post-war Italian cinema. For her first roles on the Italian screen, she had to be dubbed, as she had grown up speaking the Sicilian dialect at home. The actress received her education at a French-speaking school.
The start of her career was complicated by a secret pregnancy, which Cardinale later revealed was the result of sexual assault within her family. In 1958, she gave birth to her son, Patrick, in London and, for several years, passed him off as her younger brother while he was raised by her parents.
The actress achieved international fame in 1963, starring in Federico Fellini’s 8½. That same year, she also starred alongside Burt Lancaster in Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard.
Cardinale was a muse for directors such as Sergio Leone, Luchino Visconti, and Federico Fellini. She acted alongside stars like Marcello Mastroianni, Marlon Brando, Alain Delon, and Brigitte Bardot.
The actress received the Venice Golden Lion in 1993 for her contributions to world cinema. Additionally, she was awarded the Légion d’honneur (Order of the Legion of Honor), as well as the film awards Silver Ribbons, Golden Bear, and Golden Eagle.
