Misplaced Pages

Revision as of 11:26, 20 November 2022

Elsa Martinelli
Martinelli in The Rogues, 1964
Born	Elisa Tia (1935-01-30)30 January 1935 Grosseto, Tuscany, Italy
Died	8 July 2017(2017-07-08) (aged 82) Rome, Italy
Occupation(s)	Actress and model
Years active	1953–2005
Spouses	Count Franco Mancinelli di San Vito ​ ​(m. 1957⁠–⁠1960)​ Willy Rizzo ​ ​(m. 1968⁠–⁠1978)​
Children	Cristiana Mancinelli

Elsa Martinelli (born Elisa Tia; 30 January 1935 – 8 July 2017) was an Italian actress and fashion model.

Life and career

Born Elisa Tia in Grosseto, Tuscany, she moved to Rome with her family. In 1953, she 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, who claimed to have spotted her on a magazine cover and hired her for his production company, Bryna Productions. Douglas subsequently signed her to a two pictures a year for two years non-exclusive contract with Bryna Productions in February 1956. She was loaned out from Bryna Productions to Universal-International Pictures in March 1956 for the film Four Girls in Town.

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 United States, appearing in films such as Four Girls in Town (1957) with Julie Adams, 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 (1962) directed by Orson Welles, The V.I.P.s (1963) with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Rampage (1963) with Robert Mitchum, Woman Times Seven (1967) with Shirley MacLaine, and Candy (1968) with Marlon Brando. From the late 1960s, she worked in Europe in mostly foreign language productions. Her last English language role was as Carla the Agent in Once Upon a Crime (1992) with John Candy. Her final acting appearance was in the 2005 European television series Orgoglio as the Duchessa di Monteforte.

Personal life

Martinelli was first married to Count Franco Mancinelli Scotti di San Vito, by whom she had a daughter, Cristiana Mancinelli (born 1958), also an actress. In 1968, she married the Paris Match photographer and 1970s furniture designer, Willy Rizzo.

Death

Martinelli died of cancer in Rome on 8 July 2017, at the age of 82.

Filmography

• The Red and the Black (1954) (uncredited)
• If You Won a Hundred Million (1954) as Anna (segment "L'indossatrice")
• The Indian Fighter (1955) as Onahti
• Rice Girl (1956) as Elena Nardi
• Donatella (1956) as Donatella Guiscardi
• Four Girls in Town (1957) as Maria Antonelli
• Manuela (1957) as Manuela Hunt
• La mina (1958) as Lucia
• Prisoner of the Volga (1959) as Mascha
• Ciao, ciao bambina! (1959) as Diana
• Tunis Top Secret (1959) as Kathy Sands
• Wild Cats on the Beach (1959) as Doriana
• Bad Girls Don't Cry (1959) as Anna
• I piaceri del sabato notte (1960) as L'indossatrice romana
• Blood and Roses (1960) as Georgia Monteverdi
• Il carro armato dell'8 settembre (1960) as Mirella
• Captain Blood (1960) as Gisèle d'Angoulême
• Love in Rome (1960) as Fulvia
• The Menace (1961) as Lucile
• Hatari! (1962) as Anna Maria 'Dallas' D'Allesandro
• The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) as Antonella Massimo
• Pelle viva (1962) as Rosaria
• The Trial (1962) as Hilda
• The V.I.P.s (1963) as Gloria Gritti
• Rampage (1963) as Anna
• All About Loving (1964) as Mathilde
• Marco the Magnificent (1965) as The Woman with the Whip
• Je vous salue, mafia! (1965) as Sylvia
• Diamonds Are Brittle (1965) as Juliette
• L'or du duc (1965) as Sonia
• The 10th Victim (1965) as Olga
• How I Learned to Love Women (1966) as Monica the rallye driver
• Maroc 7 (1967) as Claudia
• The Oldest Profession (1967) as Domitilla (segment "Nuits romaines, Les")
• Woman Times Seven (1967) as Pretty woman (segment "Super Simone")
• Every Man Is My Enemy (1967) as Laureen
• Manon 70 (1968) as Annie
• The Belle Starr Story (1968) as Belle Starr
• Madigan's Millions (1968) as Vic Shaw
• Candy (1968) as Livia
• If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) as Maria, Woman on Venetian bridge
• Maldonne (1969) as Gilberte de Baer
• Una sull'altra (1969) as Jane Bleeker
• The Pleasure Pit (1969) as Martine
• L'amica (1969) as Carla Nervi
• OSS 117 Takes a Vacation (1970) as Elsa
• La araucana (1971) as Inés de Suárez
• The Lion's Share (1971) as Annie
• Garofano rosso (1976) as Zobeida
• I Am an ESP (1985) as Carla Razzi
• Pigmalione 88 (1988)
• Once Upon a Crime (1992) as Carla the Agent

References

1. Elsa Martinelli filmography, Corriere della Sera
2. Profile, cinemaretro.com; accessed 18 March 2015.
3. Motion Picture Daily (Jan-Mar 1956). MBRS Library of Congress. Quigley Publishing Company. January 1956.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
4. "Boxoffice-March.24.1956". yumpu.com. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
5. "6th Berlin International Film Festival: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
6. IMDb profile; accessed 18 March 2015.
7. Bergan, Ronald (14 July 2017). "Elsa Martinelli obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
8. Chilton, Martin. "Willy Rizzo, celebrated photographer, dies at 84". The Telegraph. Retrieved 1 August 2017.
9. Sandomir, Richard (11 July 2017). "Elsa Martinelli, Italian Model and Actress, Dies at 82". The New York Times.
10. "È morta Elsa Martinelli, i mille volti dell'attrice che da Cinecittà arrivò a Hollywood". La Repubblica (in Italian). 8 July 2017. Retrieved 8 July 2017.
11. Vivarelli, Nick (10 July 2017). "Elsa Martinelli, Star of 'The Indian Fighter,' Dies".

External links

• Elsa Martinelli at IMDb

• 1935 births
• 2017 deaths
• 20th-century Italian actresses
• 21st-century Italian actresses
• Bryna Productions people
• Deaths from cancer in Lazio
• Italian female models
• Italian film actresses
• Italian television actresses
• People from Grosseto
• Silver Bear for Best Actress winners