Claudia Cardinale, the luminous leading lady who defined Italian cinema in the 1960s and was affectionately known as ‘Italy’s dream girl,’ has passed away in Nemours, France, at the age of 87. Her captivating beauty and talent were celebrated by iconic directors such as Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone, and Federico Fellini.
Her passing was confirmed by her agent, Laurent Savry, on Tuesday, though the cause of death was not disclosed. Ms. Cardinale had resided in Nemours, a town south of Paris, for many years.
Throughout her illustrious six-decade career, Ms. Cardinale graced the screen in over 150 European films. Her talent also shone brightly in Hollywood, notably in Blake Edwards’s beloved comedy, ‘The Pink Panther.’
Her versatility was evident in her iconic roles: she embodied Marcello Mastroianni’s feminine ideal in Fellini’s ‘8½’; portrayed a determined bordello owner funding a fantastical Amazon opera house in Werner Herzog’s ‘Fitzcarraldo’; and commanded the screen as a widow gunslinger in Sergio Leone’s epic ‘Once Upon a Time in the West.’
Often counted among the great Italian screen sirens of the 1960s and ’70s, alongside Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, Ms. Cardinale distinguished herself with a more down-to-earth appeal. According to Italian film critic Massimo Benvegnù, ‘She was less curvaceous and more girl next door. She was more real.’
Surprisingly, acting wasn’t her initial dream as a teenager. Adding to her unique journey, she faced a linguistic challenge for part of her career, struggling with Italian due to her French-speaking upbringing.
Born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale on April 15, 1938, she hailed from the French protectorate of Tunisia. Her parents, Francesco Cardinale and Yolanda Greco, were Sicilian immigrants.
As the eldest of four, she grew up in a close-knit Sicilian community in Tunis, Tunisia’s capital. Her father worked as a technical engineer for the Tunisian railway, while her mother managed their household.
At 18, Claude’s life took an unexpected turn when her mother encouraged her to enter a beauty pageant at the Italian Embassy in Tunisia. Crowned the ‘most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia,’ her prize was a trip to the Venice Film Festival, where her presence (and her bikini, as she later recounted) drew significant media attention. Despite having already made a few film appearances, she consistently told reporters then that acting was not her aspiration. Her early image in Italy during the 1950s, as one Italian critic observed, was transformative: ‘In many films, she becomes an icon, something between reality and unreality.’
Her newfound fame, fueled by headlines like ‘Here’s the girl who doesn’t want to make movies,’ quickly landed her on the covers of countless Italian magazines, as noted by Mr. Benvegnù.
Initially, Claude returned to Tunisia, shunning acting opportunities. During her teenage years, she endured a sexual assault by an acquaintance, leading to a coercive and abusive relationship and ultimately, a pregnancy. In 1957, she secretly gave birth to her son, Patrick, in London. To protect her, her parents raised Patrick as her younger brother, a truth he wouldn’t learn until he was eight years old.
Later that year, Italian producer Franco Cristaldi recognized her potential, signing her to his studio, Vides Cinematografica (now Cristaldifilm). It was then that Claude officially began her career as Claudia Cardinale.
Her breakthrough arrived with Mario Monicelli’s comedic crime story ‘Big Deal on Madonna Street’ in 1958. This success was quickly followed by a series of pivotal roles, including two cinematic masterpieces of 1963: Federico Fellini’s Oscar-winning ‘8½’ and Luchino Visconti’s ‘The Leopard.’ A striking image captures Ms. Cardinale alongside Renato Salvatori in her breakout film, Mario Monicelli’s ‘Big Deal on Madonna Street’ (1958). Another photograph shows Ms. Cardinale with Alain Delon in ‘The Leopard’ (1963), a film where she credited director Luchino Visconti with teaching her ‘how to be beautiful.’
As Mr. Benvegnù recalled, she quickly became universally adored, known as ‘Italy’s girlfriend,’ truly the girl of everyone’s dreams.
Further cementing her status, Ms. Cardinale starred in Luigi Comencini’s ‘La Ragazza di Bube,’ also known as ‘Bebo’s Girl’ (1964). This commercially and critically successful film earned her Italy’s esteemed Nastro d’Argento award for best actress. In it, she portrayed Mara, a Tuscan peasant girl whose love for a young partisan, played by George Chakiris, is tested when he must hide after being implicated in a double homicide following World War II.
In 1966, she married Mr. Cristaldi in Las Vegas. However, her daughter, Ms. Squitieri, revealed that Ms. Cardinale never truly considered this marriage ‘official,’ despite Cristaldi giving her son his surname.
In Fellini’s ‘8½,’ set in an opulent spa, Ms. Cardinale played an actress and muse, also named Claudia, to the film’s protagonist, Guido Anselmi (portrayed by Marcello Mastroianni). For Anselmi, she personified his ideal woman, inspiring him to envision her as the ingénue of a new science fiction film he hoped to create. A scene from ‘8½’ shows Ms. Cardinale in her role as the muse, the protagonist’s ideal woman.
Anselmi’s perception of her was profound, as he tells her upon her arrival at the spa: ‘You are one of the girls who passes out the healing water. She is beautiful, both young and ancient, a child and yet already a woman, authentic and radiant. There’s no doubt that she’s his salvation.’
This very characterization, noted Vito Zigarrio, a film critic and historian at the University of Rome and Venice Film Festival organizer, perfectly mirrored how audiences came to view Ms. Cardinale. He explained, ‘In many films she becomes an icon, something between reality and unreality, and this ambiguity between fantasy and reality makes the character very intense.’
In Visconti’s grand historical drama ‘The Leopard,’ she captivated audiences as a young Sicilian debutante, swiftly winning the affections of both a soldier, Alain Delon, and his uncle, Burt Lancaster. Reflecting on her experience, she shared in her 2005 autobiography, ‘Mes étoiles’ (My Stars), co-authored with Danièle Georget: ‘You can learn beauty. Visconti taught me how to be beautiful. He taught me to cultivate mystery, without which, he said, there cannot be real beauty.’
Her foray into American cinema came in 1964 with a comedic performance for director Blake Edwards in ‘The Pink Panther.’ In this film, co-starring Peter Sellers, David Niven, and Robert Wagner, she played a princess embroiled in the search for a lost precious jewel. Captured here, Ms. Cardinale starred alongside David Niven in Blake Edwards’s 1964 comedy ‘The Pink Panther,’ her debut film under an American director, featuring a cast that also boasted Peter Sellers and Robert Wagner.
A truly defining role emerged in Sergio Leone’s 1968 spaghetti western, ‘Once Upon a Time in the West.’ Here, she portrayed a New Orleans prostitute who travels to the Southwest to marry, only to find her intended husband murdered by bandits upon her arrival.
In this male-dominated cast, featuring antiheroes like Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda, Ms. Cardinale’s presence was unforgettable. Jay Weissberg, an American film critic based in Rome, remarked that she ‘was able to hold her own with these extremely strong, major actors, and conveying a sense of interiority that is quite palpable.’
Her portrayal of rugged independence in the film became a hallmark of her entire career. Antonio Monda, artistic director of the Rome Film Festival, commented, ‘There was something free about her, a strong personality that would never be tamed. She was strongly independent.’
A photograph from 1969 shows Ms. Cardinale with her husband at the time, Italian screenwriter and producer Franco Cristaldi. They later divorced around 1975.
Around 1975, seeking a path of greater independence, Ms. Cardinale divorced Mr. Cristaldi and began a relationship with director Pasquale Squitieri, an independent filmmaker known for his provocative, right-leaning style. Mr. Monda observed, ‘In a sense she wanted to emancipate herself. She didn’t want to be thought of as only the product of a great producer.’
In subsequent interviews, Ms. Cardinale candidly described her life with Mr. Cristaldi as one of total control. He managed almost every detail of her existence, and she stated he even retained a large portion of her earnings from American films. ‘I was just an employee, like an office worker,’ she once recounted to Variety.
The growing strain in her marriage, coupled with her affair with Mr. Squitieri, resulted in what Ms. Cardinale described as being effectively blackballed by the Italian film industry. This prompted her move to France, where she rebuilt her career by embracing supporting roles.
She starred in nearly a dozen of Mr. Squitieri’s films. Their enduring partnership spanned 40 years, marked by the birth of their daughter in 1979, and continued until his passing in 2017. Pictured in 1978, Ms. Cardinale with Italian director Pasquale Squitieri. They shared a daughter, born in 1979, and remained together for four decades until his death in 2017, with Ms. Cardinale featuring in nearly a dozen of his movies.
Their relationship, according to Ms. Squitieri, was ‘unconventional.’ Though they lived together until 1989, their bond remained exceptionally strong throughout their lives.
Her diverse work also included a role in the star-studded 1977 television mini-series ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ where she portrayed an adulteress facing the threat of stoning.
Intriguingly, early in her career, Ms. Cardinale had looked up to French actress Brigitte Bardot. The two later co-starred in the 1971 French western comedy ‘Les Pétroleuses’ (The Legend of Frenchie King), directed by Christian-Jaque. This film humorously parodied Hollywood clichés, featuring memorable all-female shootouts and even a spirited fistfight between the two legendary actresses.
Despite expectations of a fierce rivalry, given Bardot was her idol, Ms. Squitieri noted that they ‘actually became very good friends.’
In Werner Herzog’s challenging 1982 film ‘Fitzcarraldo,’ Ms. Cardinale played a crucial supporting role opposite Klaus Kinski, the titular character. As the resilient brothel madame, her unwavering belief in her lover’s outlandish dream of building an Amazon opera house energized his bizarre, ambitious plan to drag a steamship over a mountain. A behind-the-scenes shot from 1981 captures Klaus Kinski and Ms. Cardinale on location in Peru during the filming of ‘Fitzcarraldo,’ with director Werner Herzog visible in the foreground.
The Times’s Vincent Canby lauded her performance, writing that while ‘Miss Cardinale is not onscreen as long as one might wish, she not only lights up her role, she also lights up Mr. Kinski,’ ultimately helping to ‘transform Mr. Kinski into a genuinely charming screen presence.’
This acclaimed film earned the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival and garnered Ms. Cardinale a new wave of admirers, ensuring her continued presence on the radar of film producers and casting directors for years.
In her later life, Ms. Cardinale resided in Nemours with her son and daughter. There, she founded a foundation dedicated to supporting arts focused on women and the environment. Her impactful advocacy led to her appointment as a UNESCO goodwill ambassador in 2000, honoring her dedication to advancing the rights and status of women and girls through education and empowerment. Ms. Cardinale and her daughter, Claudia Squitieri, are seen at the 2004 Marrakech Film Festival opening ceremony, where Ms. Cardinale was honored for her contributions to cinema.
Further details regarding her surviving family were not immediately released.
Just two years prior, in 2023, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, in collaboration with Italy’s national film company Cinecittà, celebrated her enduring legacy with a comprehensive 23-film retrospective of her remarkable career.
Even as she aged, Ms. Cardinale maintained a steady presence in film, often taking on supporting roles. She continued to work actively across various countries, especially in France, her adopted home.
Her daughter, Ms. Squitieri, affectionately described her mother’s character: ‘My mother was very adaptive. She is not a precious woman who has great needs, who is capricious because she is a star. She was always very humble in her requests. She always, always, always stopped to sign autographs. She detested the idea of body guards; she always wanted to be as close as she could to people. She felt very blessed by her luck.’