MOVIE NEWS – Italian screen legend Claudia Cardinale, remembered worldwide for her performances in The Leopard and Once Upon a Time in the West, has died at the age of 87. According to her agent, the actress passed away in Nemours, outside Paris, surrounded by her children, as reported by the French news agency AFP.

Cardinale was born and raised in Tunis, where her life changed dramatically in 1957 after she won the “Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia” contest. The prize took her to the Venice Film Festival, where she immediately drew the attention of producers. Just a year later, she made her film debut in Goha (1958), starring opposite Omar Sharif, and from that point on, her career trajectory was unstoppable.

By the early 1960s, she had become one of the most recognizable European stars of her era, often mentioned in the same breath as Alain Delon. She co-starred with Delon in Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers (1960) and again in Visconti’s lavish historical epic The Leopard (1963), where her portrayal of Angelica opposite Delon’s Tancredi remains iconic. Other notable appearances from this period include Valerio Zurlini’s Girl with a Suitcase (1961), Philippe de Broca’s adventure film Cartouche (1962), alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Federico Fellini’s groundbreaking 8½.

Cardinale achieved international recognition in 1963 with Blake Edwards’ The Pink Panther, where she starred with David Niven. She then spent much of the rest of the decade working in Hollywood, with credits including Blindfold (1965), Lost Command (1966), The Professionals (1966), and Don’t Make Waves (1967) opposite Tony Curtis. In 1968, she took on one of her most famous roles, Jill McBain, the widowed homesteader, in Sergio Leone’s monumental western Once Upon a Time in the West.

During the 1970s, Cardinale returned to European productions. She appeared in Luigi Zampa’s romantic comedy A Girl in Australia with Alberto Sordi, reunited with Belmondo in the crime drama Hit Man, and starred in Pasquale Squitieri’s mafia tale Corleone. She also featured in George P. Cosmatos’ World War II adventure Escape to Athena, which included Roger Moore and David Niven in its ensemble cast. In the 1980s, she was acclaimed for her performance as Claretta Petacci, Mussolini’s mistress, in Squitieri’s Claretta (1984), and appeared in Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, playing the romantic partner of Klaus Kinski’s eccentric dreamer.

Over the span of her career, Cardinale amassed 128 screen credits. Her last major appearance came in Ridha Behi’s 2022 Italian-Tunisian drama The Island of Forgiveness, which followed a Rome-based Tunisian writer of Italian descent returning home to scatter his mother’s ashes. The project strongly resonated with Cardinale’s own Tunisian heritage. She was honored in 2002 with the Career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and in the same year received the Honorary Golden Bear from the Berlinale.

Beyond her film work, Cardinale was a committed activist. Beginning in 2000, she served as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Women’s Rights, using her voice to advocate for gender equality. In 2011, The Los Angeles Times Magazine named her among the 50 most beautiful women in cinema history, reinforcing her enduring legacy as both an actress and a cultural icon.

Summary: Claudia Cardinale, acclaimed star of The Leopard and Once Upon a Time in the West, has died at 87. With a career spanning more than a hundred roles, international recognition, and lifelong activism, she leaves behind a cinematic legacy that will never fade.

Source: Deadline