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Elsa Martinelli

Elsa Martinelli

Birthday: 1935-01-30 | Place of Birth: Grosseto, Tuscany, Italy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Elsa Martinelli (3 August 1932 or 30 January 1935, according to different sources) was an Italian actress and former fashion model. Born Elisa Tia in Grosseto, Tuscany, she moved to Rome with her family and in 1953 was discovered by Roberto Capucci who introduced her to the world of fashion. She became a model and began playing small roles in films. She appeared in Claude Autant-Lara's Le Rouge et le noir (1954), but her first important film role came the following year with The Indian Fighter opposite Kirk Douglas. Douglas claims to have spotted her on a magazine cover and hired her for his production company, Bryna Productions. In 1956 she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival for playing the title role in Mario Monicelli's Donatella. From the mid 1950s through the late 1960s, she divided her time between Europe and the USA appearing films such as Four Girls in Town (1957) with George Nader, Manuela (1957) with Trevor Howard, Prisoner of the Volga (1959) with John Derek, Hatari! (1962) with John Wayne, The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) with Charlton Heston, The Trial with Anthony Perkins, The V.I.P.s (1963) with Orson Welles, Rampage (1963) with Robert Mitchum, and Woman Times Seven (1967) with Lex Barker. In Candy (1968), her co-stars were Charles Aznavour, Marlon Brando, Richard Burton, James Coburn, Walter Matthau and Ringo Starr. Since the late 1960s, she has worked in Europe in mostly foreign language productions. Her last English language role was as Carla the Agent in 1992s Once Upon a Crime. Her most recent appearance was in the 2005 European television series Orgoglio as the Duchessa di Monteforte. Martinelli was first married to Count Franco Mancinelli Scotti di San Vito, by whom she has a daughter, Cristiana Mancinelli (born 1958), also an actress. She later was married to the Paris Match photographer and 1970s furniture designer Willy Rizzo. Description above from the Wikipedia article Elsa Martinelli, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1970
OSS 117 Takes a Vacation

as    Elsa

1969
One on Top of the Other

as    Jane Bleeker

1968
The Belle Starr Story

as    Belle Starr

1968
Maroc 7

as    Claudia

1968
Candy

as    Livia

1968
Madigan's Millions

as    Vic Shaw

1967
The Oldest Profession

as    Domitilla

1967
Every Man Is My Enemy

as    Laureen

1967
Woman Times Seven

as    Pretty Woman

1966
Hail! Mafia

as    Sylvia

1963
Rampage

as    Anna

1963
The V.I.P.s

as    Gloria Gritti

1963
The Trial

as    Hilda

1962
The Big Night

as    Anna

1962
Hatari!

as    Anna Maria 'Dallas' D'Allesandro

1962
The Pigeon That Took Rome

as    Antonella Massimo

1960
Blood and Roses

as    Georgia Monteverdi

1960
Captain Blood

as    Gisèle d'Angoulême

1957
Four Girls in Town

as    Maria Antonelli

1955
The Indian Fighter

as    Onahti