Famed Italian movie star Claudia Cardinale has died at 87. Cardinale’s agent, Laurent Savry, confirmed to AFP that Cardinale passed away near Paris, in Nemours. “She leaves us the legacy of a free and inspired woman both as a woman and as an artiste,” Savry wrote in the statement.
Cardinale Was an Iconic Global Star
Following her role in Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers (1960), Cardinale became one of the most recognizable and sought-after movie stars in the world. She followed that performance up with an even more famous role—that of Claudia in Federico Fellini’s 8½ (1962). The following year, she appeared opposite Peter Sellers in Blake Edwards’ The Pink Panther (1963), playing Princess Dahla, the owner of the titular jewel. Cardinale had a small role in The Professionals (1966), which received Oscar nominations for director, screenplay, and cinematography, before going on to appear in Sergio Leone’s acclaimed Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), in which she played a former sex worker now married with children.
Later in her career, Cardinale returned to the Pink Panther franchise following Sellers’ death, appearing in Son of the Pink Panther (1993) opposite Oscar-winner Roberto Benigni. She worked with Claude Lelouch on the director’s 2002 film And Now…Ladies and Gentlemen, and starred opposite Dakota Fanning in the biopic Effie Gray (2014).
In 2020, Cardinale appeared in the French-language Netflix crime drama Rogue City. In its debut weekend, the action-drama became the streamer’s second most-streamed film. Cardinale’s final role came in The Island of Forgiveness (2022), a Tunisian-Italian domestic drama directed by Ridha Behi.
Cardinale is survived by her two children: son, Patrick, and daughter, Claudia.
