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Claudia Cardinale (born April 15, 1938) is an Italian actress born in Tunis, Tunisia. The most notable films she has appeared in include 8½ (1963) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Career:
One of Europe's iconic movie stars and among the most versatile, Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardin. She had her break in films after winning a Tunisian beauty contest in 1957. She made her film debut in Goha (1958) and later that year had a role in the major international success I soliti ignoti. Her early career was largely managed by producer Franco Cristaldi.
Throughout the 1960s she appeared in some of the best Italian and European films including Luchino Visconti's Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963), Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1963), Philippe de Broca's Cartouche (1963), Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963) and Sergio Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). Her native language is French and her fluency in Italian was limited, as she did not speak the language until the age of eighteen. Therefore, in early films her voice was dubbed by someone else. Not until 8½ was she allowed to dub her own dialogue.
Cardinale never made a real attempt to break into the American market since she was not interested in leaving Europe for extended periods of time. But her many Hollywood films include The Pink Panther (1963), Circus World (1964), Blindfold (1965) and opposite Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster in The Professionals (1966).
A photograph of Cardinale was featured in the original gatefold artwork to Bob Dylan's album Blonde on Blonde in 1966. Because the photo was used without Cardinale's permission, the photo was removed from the cover art in later pressings.
Her performance in Visconti's Sandra/Of A Thousand Delights is regarded as mesmerizing, playing a Holocaust survivor with an incestuous relationship with her brother. In Comencini's La storia (from Elsa Morante's novel), Cardinale plays a widow raising a son during World War II and gave another well-received performance.
Other memorable performances include Valerio Zurlini's Girl With a Suitcase and Mauro Bolognini's Libera.
Cardinale remains active in European cinema, her later films including Qui comincia l'avventura (1975), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Un homme amoureux (1987), Mayrig (1991), and And now... Ladies and Gentlemen (2002)
Personal life:
She denies ever having been married, although it is hypothesized that she has been at least once (to Franco Cristaldi). She has been living with film director Pasquale Squitieri since 1975 and has two children. She is also reported to have had an affair with former French President Jacques Chirac.
Claudia Cardinale is a liberal with strong political convictions. She is involved in pro-women and pro-gay issues and has frequently stated her pride in her Tunisian and Arab roots - as evidenced by her appearance as herself in the Tunisian film Un été à La Goulette (A Summer in La Goulette).
Cardinale wrote an autobiography, Moi Claudia, Toi Claudia. In 2005, she also published a French-language book, Mes Etoiles, about her personal and professional relationships with many of her directors and co-stars through her nearly 50 years in show-business.
The actress has been UNESCO good will ambassador for the Defense of Women's Rights since 1999. In 2006 (World Water Year) she symbolically extended such a role for the Defense of the Rights of the Absolute Woman: Mother Earth while declaring her support for Powerstock, a sustainable electronic music festival that proposes a "water-consciousness" for youth culture and seeks to make sustainability an integral part of mainstream culture.
She is involved in many humanitarian causes and currently lives in Paris.
Personal Quotes:
"And also something he [Sergio Leone] was doing, and is the first one, he was doing the music before starting the film. Before each scene he was putting the music of Jill. It was fantastic because you became immediately the person, I mean Jill. I was Jill after the music, the emotion, everything."
"And also, Sergio Leone was considered in Italy a director of category B, not a big director."
"Because I'm a European actress, and I was going there for movies. But then I was coming back to Europe, to Italy."
"But Luchino wanted to make the point, immediately, that he was the master on the set. And after became very, very close friends."
"But to do this kind of work, you have to be very strong, otherwise you lose your personality, your identity. You don't know who you are. It's fantastic because I've been living thousands of lives, not only my life." [on acting]
Claudia Cardinale remembers her time working with Leone fondly and particularly likes her character's "grit, and her determination. She knows what she wants and she sticks to it until she gets it. You don't find many women's parts like that in Westerns".
"I don't like the star system. I'm a normal person. I like to live in Europe. I mean, I've been going to Hollywood many, many times, but I didn't want to sign a contract."
"I never felt scandal and confession were necessary to be an actress. I've never revealed myself or even my body in films. Mystery is very important."
"If you're not English, you're a foreigner - so you must be sexy. it's an old British cliche."
"I've also been doing all the literature, Italian literature. But no, I don't like to repeat very much. I like to float with the camera."
"Many other movies, but for me The Professionals is the best I did in Hollywood."
"Sergio Leone invented totally the way of, you know, the details, the eyes, the hands - fantastic."
"To do this kind of work, you have to be very strong, otherwise you lose your personality, your identity."
"Yes, they wanted me to sign a contract of exclusivity, and I refused."
"When I arrived for my first movie, I couldn't speak a word [of Italian]. I thought I was on the moon. I couldn't understand what they were talking about. And I was speaking in French; in fact I was dubbed. And Federico Fellini was the first one who used my voice. I think I had a very strange voice."
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