Maria Grazia Buccella
Maria Grazia Buccella (born August 15, 1940) is a former Miss Italy (1959), Italian glamour model, and film actress. Career. Buccella won the Miss Trento, Miss Venice, and Miss Italy beauty pageants, and placed third in the Miss Europe 1959 competition. She represented Italy in the 1959 Miss Universe contest held in Long Beach, Calif. When she failed to make the cut from the initial 81 contestants to the final 15, the voluptuous Buccella was quoted as saying, "The judges and I obviously disagree. Back home, the men would wait for most of these girls to gain  some more weight. But I am not bitter. They are nice girls." She was busy throughout the 1960s in numerous Italian and European films. She screen tested for the role of Domino Derval in the 1965 James Bond film "Thunderball". (The role, originally an Italian woman, Dominetta Petacchi, eventually went to French actress Claudine Auger). That same year Buccella appeared in the Dino Risi-directed film "Il Gaucho" which starred Vittorio Gassman; "Gentleman de Cocody", starring Jean Marais; "The Secret Agents", starring Gassman and Henry Fonda; and the Dino DeLaurentiis production "Menage All'Italiana." Buccella appeared in the comedy anthology "Love  and Marriage" (U.S. release 1966) in a story that presaged the film "Indecent Proposal". "New York Times" film critic Howard Thompson wrote, "Lando Buzzanca as the proud and fiery husband and Maria Grazia Buccella as his dovelike bride are marvelous." Vittorio De Sica cast her as Miss Okra in the Peter Sellers farce film "After the Fox", in which she flirted with Sellers while lip-synching dialog by Akim Tamiroff. In 1968 she won a Silver Ribbon award at the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists for Best Supporting Actress (Migliore Attrice Non Protagonista) in the film "Ti ho sposato  per allegria" (released as "I Married You for Fun"). Buccella was featured on the July 1977 cover of the Italian edition of "Playboy" magazine. She retired from films in 1979, although she made two small appearances in the late 1980s and a final appearance in the 2000 television series "Hotel Otello".