Claudia Cardinale has died at the age of 87. Harrowed as an icon in Italian and international cinema, the Tunisian-born actress passed away on Tuesday, September 23, in Nemours, near Paris. She had a career spanning more than six decades, with over 128 credits on IMDb films.
Her agent confirmed the news with the media, and fans have taken to social media to remember her. "She leaves us the legacy of a free and inspired woman both as a woman and as an artiste," Laurent Savry told AFP.
Born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in 1938 in Tunis, Tunisia, Cardinale was named “Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia" in 1957 when she was 16. The prize was a trip to the Venice Film Festival. "All the directors and producers wanted me to make films, and I said, 'No, I don't want to!' she explained.
Her father convinced her to give it a chance, and within a year, she was cast in Mario Monicelli’s Big Deal on Madonna Street and began working with the giants of Italian cinema.
She grew up speaking French, Arabic, and Sicilian, only learning Italian later when her career demanded it. "I wasn't speaking a word of Italian until I was 18. They had to dub my voice in my first Italian picture!" She's quoted as saying.
Cardinale’s life story was filled with highs and lows. At 19, she was raped by a film producer and gave birth to a son, Patrick. She was pressured to pass him off as her little brother early in her career. "I did it for him, for Patrick, the child I wanted to keep despite the circumstances and the enormous scandal," she told French daily Le Monde in 2017.
The early 1960s cemented her as a global star. She starred in Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Valerio Zurlini’s Girl with a Suitcase (1961), and by 1963 was at the center of three classics: Fellini’s 8 ½, Visconti’s The Leopard, and Blake Edwards’ The Pink Panther.
The Leopard, 8 ½, and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) are other notable titles that expanded her reach into Hollywood. But she never wanted to become a cliche. "If I have to give up the money, I give it up. I do not want to become a cliché," she said.
She refused an exclusive contract with Universal Studios and returned to making films primarily in Europe.
In the mid-1970s, she began a long partnership with director Pasquale Squitieri, collaborating on multiple films. He was the father of their daughter, Claudia, and she called him her "only love." He passed away in February 2017.
Her performances won her three David di Donatello Awards and the Venice Film Festival’s honorary Golden Lion. Beyond the screen, she became an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and served as a UNESCO goodwill ambassador from 2000 onward.
In 2014, she told Art Film Fest, "If you want to practise this craft, you have to have inner strength. Otherwise, you'll lose your idea of who you are. Every film I make entails becoming a different woman. And in front of a camera, no less! But when I'm finished, I'm me again."