Mariangela Melato

Mariangela Melato (19 September 1941 – 11 January 2013) was an award-winning Italian cinema and theater actress. She won the David di Donatello for Best Actress four times between 1974 and 1981. 

Melato began her stage career in the 1960s. Her first film role was in Thomas e gli indemoniati (1969), directed by Pupi Avati. She acted in many memorable films during the 1970s and was praised for her roles in The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973), Nada (1974), Swept Away (1974), Todo modo (1976), Caro Michele (1976) and Il gatto (1978). 

Melato also starred in several English-language films, most notably as a villain in Flash Gordon (1980). She died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 71 in Rome.

Biography and career

Early years
Melato was born in Milan, Italy, to a Triestine traffic policeman and a Milanese seamstress. Her father emigrated from Nazi Germany and changed his name from Honing. Melato studied painting at the Academy of Brera. She drew posters and worked as a window dresser at La Rinascente to pay for acting lessons with Esperia Sperani. She began her theatre career in 1960, entering the stage company of Fantasio Piccoli and debuting as an actress in the play Binario cieco.

From 1963 to 1965 she worked with Dario Fo in Settimo: ruba un po' meno and La colpa è sempre del diavolo. In 1967, she worked with Luchino Visconti in The Nun of Monza, and censors shut down the play. She also starred in Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso in 1969 and his The Revenger's Tragedy in 1970.

She made her film debut in 1969 with Pupi Avati's Thomas e gli indemoniati.

1970s

In the 1970s, Melato starred in film roles such as a school teacher in Nino Manfredi's commedia all'italiana Between Miracles (1971), the female lead in Elio Petri's The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971) and Vittorio De Sica's Lo chiameremo Andrea (We'll Call Him Andrew, 1972).

In 1972, Melato was praised for her role as Giancarlo Giannini's Milanese mistress in The Seduction of Mimi (1972), directed by Lina Wertmüller. This film was the start of a successful relationship between Wertmüller, Melato and Giannini that continued with Love and Anarchy (1973), in which Melato played an anarchist prostitute, and Swept Away by an Unusual Destiny in the Blue Sea of August (1974). Melato's critically acclaimed comedic performance in this film as a spoiled, unsympathetic aristocrat is one of her more internationally well-known roles.

For the remainder of the 1970s, Melato worked with some of Europe's most renowned directors, including Claude Chabrol in Nada (1974), Elio Petri in Todo modo (1976) and Luigi Comencini in Il gatto (1978). She also worked on television, playing the role of Princess Bithiah in the miniseries Moses the Lawgiver (1974), which also had a theatrical release.

Later years
After attaining international success, Melato starred in some American productions, playing one of her most famous roles as the villainess General Kala in Flash Gordon (1980). She co-starred with Ryan O'Neal in the comedy So Fine (1981). Melato and Lina Wertmüller eventually reunited for the filming of Summer Night (1986), a response to Swept Away. She also appeared in a number of Italian comedies and dramas.

In her later years, she returned to the stage, appearing in productions of The Miracle Worker, Euripides, Pirandello, and Shakespearian plays. For ten years, she performed with the Teatro Stabile di Genova.

Death
Melato died from pancreatic cancer on 11 January 2013 in Rome, Italy, at age 71.

Selected filmography

 Let's Have a Riot   (1970)
 L'Invasion   (1970) – Valentina
 Thomas e gli indemoniati  (1970) – Zoe
 Io non scappo... fuggo (1970)
 The Swinging Confessors 	(1970) – Prostitute
 Basta guardarla (1971) – Marisa do Sol
 Between Miracles (1971) – Maestrina
 The Working Class Goes to Heaven	(1971) – Lidia
 Cometogether      (1971)
 Incontro 	(1971)
 La violenza: quinto potere	(1972) – Rosaria Licata
 The Seduction of Mimi	(1972) – Fiorella Meneghini
 Execution Squad	(1972) – Sandra
 Lo chiameremo Andrea	(1972) – Maria Antonazzi
 Il generale dorme in piedi	(1972) – Lola Pigna
 Love and Anarchy (1973) – Salomè
 Nada	(1974) – Veronique Cash
 Moses the Lawgiver	(1974) – La fille du maire
 Policewoman (1974) – Giovanna 'Gianna' Abbastanzi
 Swept Away (1974) – Raffaella Pavone Lanzetti
 Faccia di spia (1975) – Tania
 Di che segno sei?	(1975) – Marietta 'Claquette'
 The Guernica Tree	(1975) – Vandale
 Attenti al buffone	(1975) – Giulia
 Todo Modo	(1976) – Giacinta
 Caro Michele	(1976) – Mara Castorelli
 Beach House	(1977) – Giulia
 The Cat 	(1977) – Ofelia Pegoraro
 La presidentessa	(1977) – Yvette Jolifleur
 Saxofone (1978) – Fiorenza
 To Forget Venice (1979) – Anna
 I giorni cantati	(1979) – Angela
 Oggetti smarriti	(1979) – Marta
 Flash Gordon	(1980) – Kala
 In the Pope's Eye	(1980) – Unchosen actress
 Help Me Dream	(1981) – Francesca
 So Fine	(1981) – Lira
 Tomorrow We Dance	(1982) – Mariangela
 Il buon soldato	(1982) – Marta
 My Darling, My Dearest	(1982) – Armida
 Petomaniac	(1983) – Catherine Dumurier
 Secrets Secrets	(1985) – Giuliana, the judge
 My Dearest Son	(1986) – Stefania
 Summer Night	(1986) – Fulvia Bolk
 Dancers	(1987) – Contessa
 Mortacci 	(1988) – Jolanda
 The End Is Known	(1993) – Elena Malva
 Dirty Linen 	(1999) – Cinzia
 A Respectable Man  (1999) – Anna Tortora
 Probably Love (2001) – Mariangela Melato
 Love Returns (2004) – Federica
 Vieni via con me (2005) – Maria Grande

See also
 Anna Melato, actress and sister of Mariangela

References

External links
 
 
 Allmovie biography

1941 births
2013 deaths
Italian film actresses
Italian television actresses
Actresses from Milan
David di Donatello winners
Nastro d'Argento winners
Ciak d'oro winners
20th-century Italian actresses
21st-century Italian actresses
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
Deaths from cancer in Lazio
Brera Academy alumni