Elsa Martinelli

Elsa Martinelli (born Elisa Tia; 30 January 1935 – 8 July 2017) was an Italian actress and fashion model.
Life and career
Born Elisa Tia in Grosseto, Tuscany, she moved to Rome with her family. In 1953, she was discovered by Roberto Capucci who introduced her to the world of fashion. She became a model and began playing small roles in films. She appeared in Claude Autant-Lara's Le Rouge et le Noir (1954), but her first important film role came the following year with The Indian Fighter opposite Kirk Douglas, who claimed to have spotted her on a magazine cover and hired her for his production company, Bryna Productions. Douglas subsequently signed her to a two pictures a year for two years non-exclusive contract with Bryna Productions in February 1956. She was loaned out from Bryna Productions to Universal-International Pictures in March 1956 for the film Four Girls in Town.
In 1956, she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival for playing the title role in Mario Monicelli's Donatella.
From the mid-1950s through the late 1960s, she divided her time between Europe and the United States, appearing in films such as Four Girls in Town (1957) with Julie Adams, Manuela (1957) with Trevor Howard, Prisoner of the Volga (1959) with John Derek, Hatari! (1962) with John Wayne, The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) with Charlton Heston, The Trial (1962) directed by Orson Welles, The V.I.P.s (1963) with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Rampage (1963) with Robert Mitchum, Woman Times Seven (1967) with Shirley MacLaine, and Candy (1968) with Marlon Brando. From the late 1960s, she worked in Europe in mostly foreign language productions. Her last English language role was as Carla the Agent in Once Upon a Crime (1992) with John Candy. Her final acting appearance was in the 2005 European television series Orgoglio as the Duchessa di Monteforte.
Personal life
Martinelli was first married to Count Franco Mancinelli Scotti di San Vito, by whom she had a daughter, Cristiana Mancinelli (born 1958), also an actress. In 1968, she married the Paris Match photographer and 1970s furniture designer, Willy Rizzo.
Death
Martinelli died of cancer in Rome on 8 July 2017, at the age of 82.
Filmography
The Red and the Black (1954) (uncredited)
If You Won a Hundred Million (1954) as Anna (segment "L'indossatrice")
The Indian Fighter (1955) as Onahti
Rice Girl (1956) as Elena Nardi
Donatella (1956) as Donatella Guiscardi
Four Girls in Town (1957) as Maria Antonelli
Manuela (1957) as Manuela Hunt
(1958) as Lucia
Prisoner of the Volga (1959) as Mascha
Ciao, ciao bambina! (1959) as Diana
Tunis Top Secret (1959) as Kathy Sands
Wild Cats on the Beach (1959) as Doriana
Bad Girls Don't Cry (1959) as Anna
Call Girls of Rome (1960) as Marisa
Blood and Roses (1960) as Georgia Monteverdi
Il carro armato dell'8 settembre (1960) as Mirella
Captain Blood (1960) as Gisèle d'Angoulême
Love in Rome (1960) as Fulvia
The Menace (1961) as Lucile
Hatari! (1962) as Anna Maria 'Dallas' D'Allesandro
The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) as Antonella Massimo
Pelle viva (1962) as Rosaria
The Trial (1962) as Hilda
The V.I.P.s (1963) as Gloria Gritti
Rampage (1963) as Anna
All About Loving (1964) as Mathilde
Marco the Magnificent (1965) as The Woman with the Whip
Je vous salue, mafia! (1965) as Sylvia
Diamonds Are Brittle (1965) as Juliette
(1965) as Sonia
The 10th Victim (1965) as Olga
How I Learned to Love Women (1966) as Monica the rallye driver
Maroc 7 (1967) as Claudia
The Oldest Profession (1967) as Domitilla (segment "Nuits romaines, Les")
Woman Times Seven (1967) as Pretty woman (segment "Super Simone")
(1967) as Laureen
Manon 70 (1968) as Annie
The Belle Starr Story (1968) as Belle Starr
Madigan's Millions (1968) as Vic Shaw
Candy (1968) as Livia
If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) as Maria, Woman on Venetian bridge
(1969) as Gilberte de Baer
Una sull'altra (1969) as Jane Bleeker
The Pleasure Pit (1969) as Martine
L'amica (1969) as Carla Nervi
OSS 117 Takes a Vacation (1970) as Elsa
(1971) as Inés de Suárez
The Lion's Share (1971) as Annie
(1976) as Zobeida
I Am an ESP (1985) as Carla Razzi
(1988)
Once Upon a Crime (1992) as Carla the Agent
References
External links
1935 births
2017 deaths
20th-century Italian actresses
21st-century Italian actresses
Bryna Productions people
Deaths from cancer in Lazio
Italian female models
Italian film actresses
Italian television actresses
People from Grosseto
Silver Bear for Best Actress winners