Claude Josephine Rose Cardin aka Claudia biography

She is probably the most beatiful Italian actress with Sophia Loren, even if CC is more talented.

Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardin to French mother and Sicilian father on April 15, 1938 in Tunis. She had her break into films after winning a Tunisian beauty contest in 1957. She made her film debut in Goha (1958) and later that year had a role in the minor international success I soliti ignoti. Her early career was largely managed by producer Franco Cristaldi. Throughout the 1960s she appeared in many Italian or Italian co-financed films including Luchino Visconti's Il Gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963), Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1963), Philippe de Broca's Cartouche (1963), Federico Fellini's 8½ (1963) and Sergio Leone's epic Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

Despite her very feminine appearance, she had a deep voice (for a woman) from an early age. Moreover she claims she wasn't able to speak Italian until the age of eighteen; For these reasons in her early films she had her voice dubbed by someone else. Indeed, despite her Italian nationality, her maternal language is French and she has always lived most of the time in France, that she considers to be her actual homeland.

Cardinale never made a real attempt to break into the American market since she was not interested in leaving Europe for extended periods of time. Her Hollywood films include The Pink Panther (1963), Circus World (1964), Blindfold (1965) and The Hell With Heroes (1968).

A photograph of Cardinale was featured in the original gatefold artwork to Bob Dylan's album Blonde on Blonde in 1966; since the photo was used without Cardinale's permission, the photo was removed from the cover art in later pressings.

Her performance in Visconti's Sandra/Of A Thousand Delights is regarded as mesmerizing, playing a Holocaust survivor with an incestuous relationship with her brother. In Comencini's La Storia (from Elsa Morante's novel), Cardinale plays a widow raising a son during World War II and was another well-received performance.

Other memorable performances include Valerio Zurlini's Girl With a Suitcase and Mauro Bolognini's Libera.

Cardinale remains active in European cinema, her later films include Qui comincia l'avventura (1975), Fitzcarraldo (1982), Un homme amoureux (1987), Mayrig (1991), and And now... Ladies and Gentlemen (2002)