# Marisa Berenson

Vittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson (born February 15, 1947) is an American actress and former model. She appeared on the front covers of Vogue and Time, and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Natalia Landauer in the 1972 film Cabaret. The role also earned her Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations. Her other film appearances include Death in Venice (1971), Barry Lyndon (1975), S.O.B. (1981), and I Am Love (2009).
In 2001, she made her Broadway debut in the revival of Design for Living.

## Early life
### Childhood

Berenson was born in New York City, the elder of two daughters. Her father, Robert Lawrence Berenson, was an American career diplomat turned shipping executive of Russian Jewish and Polish Jewish descent, and his family's original surname was Valvrojenski. Her mother was Maria-Luisa Yvonne "Gogo" Radha de Wendt Schiaparelli, a socialite of Italian, Swiss and French descent.

### Family

Berenson's maternal grandmother was the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli, and her maternal grandfather was Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor, a theosophist and psychic medium. Her younger sister, Berinthia, became a model, actress, and photographer, and was known as Berry Berenson. She was married to actor Anthony Perkins. Berry Berenson died on September 11, 2001 in New York City.
She is also a great-grandniece of Giovanni Schiaparelli, an Italian astronomer who was the first to describe the canals of Mars, and a second cousin, once removed, of art expert Bernard Berenson and his sister Senda Berenson, an athlete and educator who was one of the first two women elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

## Career

A fashion model discovered as a teenager by Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, Berenson came to prominence in the 1960s. She appeared on the cover of the July 1970 issue of Vogue as well as the cover of Time on December 15, 1975. She appeared in numerous fashion layouts in Vogue in the late 1960s and early 1970s. She was known as "The Queen of the Scene" for her frequent appearances at nightclubs and other social venues in her youth, and Yves Saint Laurent dubbed her "the girl of the Seventies".
Berenson's early film roles included Gustav von Aschenbach's wife in Luchino Visconti's 1971 film Death in Venice and the Jewish department store heiress Natalia Landauer in the 1972 film Cabaret. The latter role led to two Golden Globe nominations, a BAFTA nomination, and an award from the National Board of Review.
She portrayed the tragic beauty Lady Lyndon in the Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon (1975). Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote: "Marisa Berenson splendidly suits her costumes and wigs." She recalled her experience working under Kubrick's direction:
   I liked him very much. He had a lot of dry humour. Contrary to what people think — they have this image of Stanley as this difficult ogre — he wasn't at all. He was a perfectionist, but every great director I've worked with has been a perfectionist. You have to be to make extraordinary films.
Berenson's other performances included Casanova & Co. (1977), Killer Fish (1979), the Blake Edwards comedy S.O.B. (1981), The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984), and Clint Eastwood's White Hunter Black Heart (1990), as well as in made-for-TV movies in the United States, such as the Holocaust-themed drama Playing for Time (1980). She guest-starred in an episode of The Muppet Show during its third season in 1978. She made her Broadway debut in the 2001 revival of Design for Living, which also starred Jennifer Ehle, Alan Cumming, and Dominic West. In 2009, she appeared in the film I Am Love.
In August 2016, she appeared in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick Theatre in London, as Lady Capulet.
Berenson is chairman of the board of Culture Project, an organization that sponsors the theater.

## Personal life

On September 11, 2001, her younger sister and sole sibling, Berry Perkins, widow of actor Anthony Perkins, was killed in the first flight to hit the World Trade Center. Marisa was also in an airplane during the terrorist attacks, flying from Paris to New York. In an interview with CBS, she told of the experience and how hours later she landed in Newfoundland (flights were diverted to Canada), and was told of her sister's death by a phone call with her daughter. Said Berenson: "I have hope and tremendous faith. I think that's what gets you through life ... through tragedies is when you have faith."
Of her practice of Transcendental Meditation she said:
   India changed my life, because I was searching for my spiritual path, and I ended up in an ashram in Rishikesh with Maharishi and the Beatles. We'd sit on the floor at night, and George and Ringo would play the guitar, and we'd meditate all day, and have meals together, and become vegetarians, and live in huts. But it was just normal. It wasn't like, "Oh, here are the Beatles." The most important thing was my transcendental meditation.
In the 1970s, Berenson was a vegetarian and believer in reincarnation. She later abandoned vegetarianism and returned to eating meat.
Berenson lives in a villa on the outskirts of Marrakesh. She is fluent in English, Italian, and French.

### Relationships

Berenson's first husband was James Randall, a rivet manufacturer; they wed in Beverly Hills in 1976 and divorced in 1978. The couple have one daughter, born 1977, who is a social worker.
Her second husband was Aaron Richard Golub (born 1942, Worcester, Massachusetts), a lawyer, whom she married in 1982 and divorced in 1987. During the divorce proceedings, the judge ruled "the increased value of Ms. Berenson's acting and modeling career during the marriage were marital property" and therefore subject to consideration in any settlement agreements.

## Filmography
### Film

| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
| Death in Venice | 1971 | Frau von Aschenbach | |
| Cabaret | 1972 | Natalia Landauer | NBR Award for Best Supporting Actress Nominated – Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture Nominated – Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer - Female Nominated – BAFTA Film Award for Best Supporting Actress |
| Un modo di essere donna | 1973 | Sibilla Ferrandi | |
| Barry Lyndon | 1975 | Lady Honoria Lyndon | |
| Some Like It Cool | 1977 | The Caliph's Wife | |
| Killer Fish | 1979 | Ann | |
| S.O.B. | 1981 | Mavis | |
| Led by the Nose | 1984 | Vera | |
| The Syringe | 1984 | L'Arbalète' | |
| The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud | 1984 | Emma Herrmann | |
| Flagrant désir | 1986 | Jeanne Barnac | |
| Via Montenapoleone | 1987 | Francesca | |
| White Hunter Black Heart | 1990 | Kay Gibson | |
| Night of the Cyclone | 1990 | Françoise | |
| Il giardino dei ciliegi | 1992 | Charlotte | |
| Venti dal Sud | 1994 | Anne de Bois | |
| Le grand blanc de Lambaréné | 1995 | Helene Schweitzer | |
| Tonka | 1997 | Mme Pflaum | |
| Elles | 1997 | Chloé | |
| Riches, belles, etc. | 1998 | Alizéa | |
| Retour à la vie | 1999 | Stéphanie | |
| The Photographer | 2000 | Julie Morris | |
| Primetime Murder | 2000 | Martha Werther | |
| Lisa | 2001 | Princess Maruschka | |
| Lonesome | 2001 | Verena | |
| People | 2004 | Daniella | |
| Le plus beau jour de ma vie | 2004 | Barbara | |
| Color Me Kubrick | 2005 | Alex Witchell | |
| 24 Bars | 2007 | La mère | |
| Vote and Die: Liszt for President | 2008 | Dr. Elizabeth Dyson | |
| I Am Love | 2009 | Allegra Rori Recchi | |
| Cinéman | 2009 | Lady Lyndon | |
| The Disciple | 2010 | Maria | |
| Weddings and Other Disasters | 2010 | Lucrezia | |
| Hitler in Hollywood | 2010 | Marisa Berenson | |
| Gigola | 2011 | Solange | |
| Opium [fr] | 2013 | Marquise Casati | |
| The Love Punch | 2013 | Clothilde | |
| Branagh Theatre Live: Romeo and Juliet | 2016 | Lady Capulet | |
| Halston | 2019 | Herself | |
| DogMan | 2023 | Aristocrat Woman | |
| My darling family | 2024 | The singer | |

### Television

| Title | Year | Role | Notes |
| Coronet Blue | 1967 | Mary Barclay | Episode: "Faces" |
| The Muppet Show | 1978 | Herself | Episode: Marisa Berenson |
| Tourist | 1980 | Marian | Television film |
| Playing for Time | 1980 | Elzvieta | Television film |
| Bel ami | 1983 | Clotilde de Marelle | Limited series |
| The Equalizer | 1985 | Andrea Browne | Episode: "Back Home" |
| Sins | 1986 | Luba Tcherina | Recurring role (3 episodes) |
| Who's The Boss? | 1986 | Genevieve Pescher | Episode: "Not with My Client You Don't" |
| ABC Afterschool Specials | 1986 | Liz Childs | Episode: "Getting Even: A Wimp's Revenge" |
| Lo scialo | 1987 | Nina | Recurring role (3 episodes) |
| Hemingway | 1988 | Pauline Pfeiffer | Main role (4 episodes) |
| Spy Wars | 1989 | Isabella De Ambrosis | Main role (3 episodes) |
| Ocean | 1989 | Muneca Chavez | Main role (6 episodes) |
| Have A Nice Night | 1990 | Barbara Jenkins | Television film |
| Blaues Blut | 1990 | Ann Ryder | Episode: "Schatten der Vergangenheit" |
| Chillers | 1990 | Professor Rebecca Vernay | Episode: "The Thrill Seeker" |
| L'enfant des loups | 1991 | Radegonde | Television film |
| Hollywood Detective | 1991 | Dorothy Parker | Episode: "Romanoff a Clef" |
| Ti ho adottato per simpatia | 1991 | Unknown | Television film |
| Murder, She Wrote | 1992 | Claudia Cameron | Episode: "Danse Diabolique" |
| Notorious | 1992 | Katarina Sebastian | Television film |
| Maigret | 1995 | Mme Crosby | Episode: "Maigret et la tête d'un homme" |
| Het verdriet van België | 1995 | Madame Laura | Recurring role (2 episodes) |
| Maintenant et pour toujours | 1998 | Marianne | Television film |
| Ama il tuo nemico 2 | 2001 | Unknown | Television film |
| Commissaire Valence | 2004 | Mme Irène | Episode: "Machination" |
| Julie, chevalier de Maupin | 2004 | Madame de Maintenon | Television film |
| Venus and Apollo | 2005 | Albina de Braise | Episode: "Soin défraîchi" |
| Le juge est une femme | 2005 | Julie de Berg | Episode: "La petite marchande de fleurs" |
| Mafiosa | 2006– 2007 | Caterina Paoli | Recurring role (6 episodes) |
| Lost Signs | 2007 | Irène de Lestrade | Recurring role (12 episodes) |
| Il peccato e la vergogna | 2010 | Elena Fontamara | Recurring role (2 episodes) |
| Caldo criminale | 2010 | Lucrezia | Television film |
| Le sang de la vigne | 2011 | Shirley | Episode: "Le dernier coup de Jarnac" |
| La collection: Ecrire pour... la trentaine vue par des écrivains | 2014 | Marianne | Episode: "Rose Mystica" |
| Velvet Colección | 2018 | Sandra Petribello | Recurring role (2 episodes) |

## Theatre

| Title | Year | Role | Venue |
| Holiday | 1980 | Julia Seton | Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles |
| Design For Living | 2001 | Grace Torrence | Broadway, Roundabout Revival |
| Romeo and Juliet | 2016 | Lady Capulet | West End, Kenneth Branagh Revival |