Virna Lisi
Virna Lisi | |
|---|---|
 Lisi on 11 July 2009 | |
| Born | Virna Lisa Pieralisi 8 November 1936 |
| Died | 18 December 2014 (aged 78) Rome, Italy |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1953–2014 |
| Spouse |
Franco Pesci
(m. 1960; died 2013) |
| Children | 1 |
| Awards | César Award Best Supporting Actress 1995: La Reine Margot Cannes Film Festival Best Actress 1994: La Reine Margot |
Virna Lisa Pieralisi[1] (Italian: [ˈvirna pjeraˈliːzi]; 8 November 1936 – 18 December 2014), known as just Virna Lisi, was an Italian actress. Her international film appearances included How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966), The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969), Beyond Good and Evil (1977), and Follow Your Heart (1996). For the 1994 film La Reine Margot, she won Best Actress at Cannes and the César Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Career
Early career
Born in
In the late 1950s, Lisi performed on stage at
Hollywood career
Though she turned down the Tatiana Romanova role in From Russia with Love (1963),[3] Hollywood producers sought a new Marilyn Monroe and so, Lisi debuted in Hollywood comedy as a green-eyed blonde temptress with Jack Lemmon in How to Murder Your Wife (1965) and appeared with Tony Curtis in Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966). Lisi then starred with Frank Sinatra, in Assault on a Queen (1966), in The Girl and the General, co-starring with Rod Steiger, and in two films with Anthony Quinn, The Secret of Santa Vittoria, directed by Stanley Kramer, and the war drama The 25th Hour. She garnered attention for a photo of her 'shaving' her face that appeared on the March 1965 cover of Esquire magazine.
Later career in Europe
To overcome her typecasting playing seductresses, Lisi sought new types of roles, of evil women or of a lover in relationships of disparate age for example. In those years, she participated in Italian productions, in
She told The New York Sunday Times that after marrying Franco Pesci, an Italian builder and architect, she briefly retired from acting in the early 1970s to spend more time with her husband and their son, Corrado.
Virna Lisi then participated in many sitcoms and TV series. Her last movie was in the Italian comedy drama Latin Lover in 2014, shortly before her death.
Personal life and death
She was married to Franco Pesci, an Italian property developer and architect. They were married for 53 years until his death, a year before her. After her marriage she briefly retired from acting, saying: “My husband was not very happy about my career, Franco is a jealous man — thank God! After we married he tried to take me away from all this movie business.” She said he eventually relented.[4]
On 18 December 2014, Lisi died of lung cancer in Rome at age 78.[7] She is survived by a son, Corrado Pesci, and three grandchildren.[4]
Legacy
The Argentinian band
after her in 1989.
Filmography
Television
- Cenerentola (1961) as Cenerentola
- Il caso Maurizius (1961)
- Una tragedia americana (1962) as Sondra Finchley
- Christopher Columbus (1985) as Dona Moniz Perestrello
- Uno di noi (1996)
- Desert of Fire (1997) as Christine Duvivier
- Balzac (1999) as Laure de Berny
- Rock Crystal (1999) as Sanna
- Le ali della vita (2000) as Sorella Alberta
- Piccolo mondo antico (2001) as Marchesa Orsola
- Il bello delle donne (2001) as Contessa Miranda Spadoni
- Caterina e le sue figlie (2005–2010) as Caterina
- L'onore e il rispetto (2006) as Ersilia Fortebracci
References
- ^ "Virna Lisi obituary | Movies | The Guardian". amp.theguardian.com. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
- Rai Uno. Archived from the originalon 5 July 2013. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
- ^ "VIRNA LISI/ Quando disse di no a James Bond e a Playboy... (Techetechetè)". IlSussidiario.net. 22 July 2018.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 26 March 2023.
- ^ Codelli, Lorenzo (13 February 2018). "Italian Films at Cannes 1960–1990 (2/3)". Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Queen Margot". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 27 August 2009.
- ^ Vivarelli, Nick (18 December 2014). "Italian Actress Virna Lisi Dies At 78". Variety.
External links
- Virna Lisi at AllMovie
- Virna Lisi at IMDb
Awards for Virna Lisi | |
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