Claude Joséphine Rose "Claudia" Cardinale (French: [klod ʒozefin ʁoz kaʁdinal]; born 15 April 1938) is an Italian Tunisian actress.
Born and raised in La Goulette, a neighbourhood of Tunis, Cardinale won the "Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia" competition in 1957, the prize being a trip to Italy, which quickly led to film contracts, due above all to the involvement of Franco Cristaldi, who acted as her mentor for a number of years and later married her. After making her debut in a minor role with the Egyptian star Omar Sharif in Goha (1958), Cardinale became one of the best-known actresses in Italy with roles in films such as Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Girl with a Suitcase (1961), Cartouche (1962), The Leopard (1963), and Fellini's 8½ (1963).
From 1963, Cardinale appeared in The Pink Panther opposite David Niven. She went on to appear in the Hollywood films Blindfold (1965), Lost Command (1966), The Professionals (1966), Don't Make Waves (1967) with Tony Curtis, The Hell with Heroes (1968), and the Sergio Leone Western Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), a joint US-Italian production, in which she was praised for her role as a former prostitute opposite Jason Robards, Charles Bronson, and Henry Fonda.
Jaded with the Hollywood film industry and not wanting to become a cliché, Cardinale returned to Italian and French cinema, and garnered the David di Donatello for Best Actress award for her roles in Il giorno della civetta (1968) and as a prostitute alongside Alberto Sordi in A Girl in Australia (1971). In 1974, Cardinale met director Pasquale Squitieri, who would become her partner, and she frequently featured in his films, including I guappi (1974), Corleone (1978) and Claretta (1984), the last of which won her the Nastro d'Argento Award for Best Actress. In 1982, she starred in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo as the love interest of Klaus Kinski, who raises the funds to buy a steamship in Peru. In 2010, Cardinale received the Best Actress Award at the 47th Antalya "Golden Orange" International Film Festival for her performance as an elderly Italian woman who takes in a young Turkish exchange student in Signora Enrica.
Outspoken on women's rights causes over the years, Cardinale has been a UNESCO goodwill ambassador for the Defence of Women's Rights since March 2000. In February 2011, the Los Angeles Times Magazine named Cardinale among the 50 most beautiful women in film history.
Early life :
Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette, a neighbourhood of Tunis, Tunisia, on 15 April 1938. Her mother, Yolande Greco like her was born in Tunisia to Sicilian emigrants from Trapani. Her maternal grandparents had a small shipbuilding firm in Trapani, but later settled in La Goulette, where a large Italian community existed. Her father, Francesco Cardinale, was a railway worker, born in Gela, Sicily. Her native languages were French, Tunisian Arabic, and the Sicilian language of her parents. She did not learn to speak Italian until she had already begun to be cast for Italian films.
Cardinale was educated at the Saint-Joseph-de-l'Apparition school of Carthage, which she attended along with her younger sister Blanche. She then studied at the Paul Cambon School, where she graduated with the intention of becoming a teacher. As a teenager, she was described as "silent, weird, and wild", and like other girls of her generation, was fascinated by Brigitte Bardot, who came to prominence in the 1956 film And God Created Woman, directed by Roger Vadim.
