Claudia Cardinale, the iconic Italian actress known for her captivating beauty and a magnetic screen presence, has passed away at the age of 87 in Nemours, France. She was celebrated as “Italy’s dream girl” throughout the 1960s, a muse to legendary directors such as Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone, and Federico Fellini.
Her agent, Laurent Savry, confirmed her passing on Tuesday, though the cause of death was not disclosed. Cardinale had made Nemours, located south of Paris, her home in recent years. Her illustrious career spanned over six decades, featuring more than 150 films across Europe and numerous memorable roles in Hollywood productions, including Blake Edwards’s beloved comedy “The Pink Panther.”
Cardinale’s versatility shone through her diverse roles: she embodied Marcello Mastroianni’s ideal woman in Fellini’s Oscar-winning “8½,” portrayed a determined bordello owner funding an ambitious opera house project in Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo,” and took on the role of a resilient widow gunslinger in Sergio Leone’s epic Western, “Once Upon a Time in the West.”
While often associated with fellow Italian screen legends Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida as leading sex symbols of their era, Cardinale cultivated a distinctly more accessible persona. Italian film critic Massimo Benvegnù noted that unlike the highly curvaceous “maggiorate” stars of the time—such as Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, and Jayne Mansfield—Cardinale possessed a more “girl-next-door” appeal, feeling inherently “more real.”
Interestingly, acting was not her initial dream as a teenager. Throughout parts of her career, she even found speaking Italian challenging, having been raised primarily with French. Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale was born on April 15, 1938, in Tunisia, then a French protectorate, to Sicilian immigrants Francesco Cardinale and Yolanda Greco.
Growing up as the eldest of four siblings within a close-knit Sicilian community in Tunis, her father worked as a technical engineer for the Tunisian railway, while her mother managed their home. At 18, Claude entered a beauty pageant, partially orchestrated by her mother, at the Italian Embassy in Tunisia. She won the title of “most beautiful Italian girl in Tunisia,” which led to a trip to the Venice Film Festival. There, her presence, notably in a bikini, captured widespread media attention and photographs. Despite having appeared in a few films by then, she consistently told reporters she had no ambitions to become an actress.
Film critic Massimo Benvegnù recalled how she subsequently appeared on the covers of all Italian magazines, often with headlines proclaiming her as “the girl who doesn’t want to make movies.” Claude initially returned to Tunisia, declining acting offers. However, during her teenage years, she endured a sexual assault by an acquaintance, leading to a coercive relationship and pregnancy. In 1957, she gave birth to her son, Patrick, in London. Her parents, to shield her, raised Patrick as their younger brother, only revealing the truth to him when he was eight years old.
That same year, the influential Italian producer Franco Cristaldi signed her to his studio, Vides Cinematografica (now Cristaldifilm), officially launching her illustrious career under the name Claudia Cardinale.
Cardinale’s breakthrough came with the 1958 comedic crime story “Big Deal on Madonna Street,” directed by Mario Monicelli. This led to a rapid succession of major roles, including Fellini’s Oscar-winning “8½” and Visconti’s “The Leopard,” both released in 1963. After these successes, Massimo Benvegnù noted, she became affectionately known as “Italy’s girlfriend,” embodying the nation’s collective dream girl.
In 1964, her performance in Luigi Comencini’s “La Ragazza di Bube” (“Bebo’s Girl”) earned her the prestigious Nastro d’Argento award for best actress. In this critically and commercially successful film, she portrayed Mara, a Tuscan peasant girl whose love for a partisan, George Chakiris, is tested when he must go into hiding after being implicated in a double homicide at the end of World War II.
She married her producer, Franco Cristaldi, in Las Vegas in 1966. However, her daughter, Claudia Squitieri, clarified that her mother never considered this marriage “official,” despite Cristaldi formally giving her son, Patrick, his last name.
In Fellini’s “8½,” set in a lavish spa, Cardinale portrayed an actress and muse named Claudia, the protagonist director Guido Anselmi’s (Marcello Mastroianni) ideal woman and the envisioned ingenue for his upcoming science fiction film. Anselmi describes her as a “healing water” girl, calling her “beautiful, both young and ancient, a child and yet already a woman, authentic and radiant,” and his undeniable “salvation.” This portrayal mirrored how audiences came to view Cardinale herself, transforming her into an icon that blurred the lines between reality and fantasy, making her characters intensely captivating, as noted by film critic Vito Zigarrio.
Her role in Visconti’s grand period drama “The Leopard” saw her as a young Sicilian debutante who charmed both a soldier, Alain Delon, and his uncle, Burt Lancaster. In her 2005 autobiography, “Mes Étoiles” (“My Stars”), co-authored with Danièle Georget, Cardinale credited Visconti with teaching her how to cultivate beauty and mystery, elements he deemed essential to true allure.
Taking a comedic leap in 1964, Cardinale collaborated with American director Blake Edwards in “The Pink Panther.” In this classic comedy, she played a princess involved in the disappearance of a priceless jewel, sharing the screen with comedic giants Peter Sellers, David Niven, and Robert Wagner.
Sergio Leone’s 1968 spaghetti Western, “Once Upon a Time in the West,” offered Cardinale another career-defining role. She portrayed a resilient New Orleans prostitute traveling to the Southwest to marry, only to find her intended husband murdered by bandits upon arrival. As the sole female lead amidst a cast of formidable male antiheroes including Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda, Cardinale commanded the screen. American film critic Jay Weissberg highlighted her ability to “hold her own with these extremely strong, major actors, and conveying a sense of interiority that is quite palpable.”
Antonio Monda, artistic director of the Rome Film Festival, noted that her portrayal of rugged independence in the film became a hallmark of her career. “There was something free about her, a strong personality that would never be tamed,” he observed, emphasizing her strong sense of independence.
Around 1975, Cardinale divorced Franco Cristaldi and began a relationship with independent filmmaker Pasquale Squitieri, known for his right-leaning provocations. According to Monda, this move reflected her desire to “emancipate herself” and avoid being perceived solely as the creation of a major producer.
Cardinale later revealed in interviews that her marriage to Cristaldi was marked by his pervasive control, with him dictating almost every aspect of her life and retaining the majority of her earnings from American films. She described herself as merely “an employee, like an office worker,” to Variety.
The increasing strain in their relationship and her new affair with Squitieri led to their virtual ostracism from the Italian film industry, as Cardinale recounted. Seeking to revitalize her career, she relocated to France, embracing supporting roles. She went on to star in nearly a dozen of Squitieri’s films, and their partnership flourished for 40 years until his passing in 2017. Cardinale also featured in Franco Zeffirelli’s 1977 television mini-series, “Jesus of Nazareth,” in an all-star cast, playing an adulteress facing stoning.
Interestingly, early in her career, Cardinale had drawn inspiration from Brigitte Bardot, who would later become her co-star in the 1971 French western comedy “Les Pétroleuses” (“The Legend of Frenchie King”), directed by Christian-Jaque. This film humorously satirized Hollywood conventions, even featuring all-female shootouts and a memorable fistfight between the two leading ladies. Far from rivals, Bardot was her idol, and they became close friends.
In Werner Herzog’s 1982 film “Fitzcarraldo,” Cardinale played a crucial supporting role opposite Klaus Kinski. Her portrayal of a brothel madame, whose unwavering belief fueled her lover’s eccentric dream of building an opera house in the Amazon, was pivotal. The film’s ambitious plot famously involved dragging a steamship over a mountain. Vincent Canby of The Times praised her performance, noting that she “not only lights up her role, she also lights up Mr. Kinski,” transforming him into a “genuinely charming screen presence.” “Fitzcarraldo” went on to win the top award at the Cannes Film Festival, bringing Cardinale renewed acclaim and keeping her in demand with filmmakers for years.
Later in life, Cardinale resided in Nemours with her son and daughter. There, she established a foundation dedicated to supporting the arts, with a particular focus on empowering women and environmental issues. In 2000, UNESCO appointed her as a goodwill ambassador, recognizing her dedication to advancing the status of women and girls through education and advocating for their rights.
Details regarding her complete list of survivors were not immediately released. In 2023, in collaboration with Cinecittà, Italy’s national film company, the Museum of Modern Art in New York honored Cardinale’s extensive career with a 23-film retrospective.
While her later years saw fewer leading roles, Cardinale maintained a consistent acting presence, especially in France, her adopted country. Her daughter, Claudia Squitieri, praised her mother’s adaptable nature: “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 bodyguards; she always wanted to be as close as she could to people. She felt very blessed by her luck.” This sentiment perfectly captures the enduring spirit of an actress who remained grounded and connected despite her legendary status.