Italian actress Virna Lisi dead at 78

Published December 19, 2014
Italian actress Virna Lisi arrives to pay honour to Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni on May 20, 2009, prior the screening of the movie 'Inglourious Basterds' directed by Quentin Tarantino in competition at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. – AFP/File
Italian actress Virna Lisi arrives to pay honour to Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni on May 20, 2009, prior the screening of the movie 'Inglourious Basterds' directed by Quentin Tarantino in competition at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. – AFP/File

ROME: Italian actress Virna Lisi, who played opposite Hollywood stars including Frank Sinatra in the 1960s and later established herself an acclaimed character actress, has died at the age of 78.

Italian media quoted her son as saying that Lisi had passed away peacefully in her sleep on Wednesday, a month after being diagnosed with an incurable illness.

Born in Ancona in 1936, she was an established cinema and theatre actress before Hollywood producers looking for a new Marilyn Monroe came calling in the mid-1960s.

With Jack Lemmon, she made How to Murder Your Wife in 1965 and followed up by starring alongside Tony Curtis in Not with my Wife, You Don't and with Sinatra in Assault on a Queen the following year.

Reluctant to be restricted to love-interest roles based on her looks, she turned down the sexy part taken by Jane Fonda in Roger Vadim's Barbarella (1968) and moved back to Europe after only three years of a seven-year contract with Paramount studios.

While in Hollywood, she maintained a parallel career in European cinema, notably playing a lead role in The Birds, the Bees and the Italians, which shared the top prize, the Palme d'Or, at the Cannes film festival in 1966.

After taking a break from acting in the early 1970s, Lisi successfully reinvented herself as a character actress with a broad range. Her portrayal of Catherine de' Medici in La Reine Margot (1994) saw her pick up both a French Cesar and the best actress award at Cannes.

She also worked extensively in television and made the last of her nearly 80 films, Il Piu Bel Giorno Della Mia Vita, in 2002.

She is survived by her son Corrado Pesci and three grandchildren. Her husband of 53 years, the architect Franco Pesci, died in 2013.

Opinion

Editorial

First steps
29 May, 2024

First steps

IT is, without doubt, a positive development. The chief minister of KP seems to have reached an arrangement that ...
Rafah inferno
29 May, 2024

Rafah inferno

THE level of barbarity witnessed in Sunday’s Israeli air strike targeting a refugee camp in Rafah is shocking even...
On a whim
29 May, 2024

On a whim

THE sudden declaration of May 28 as a public holiday to observe Youm-i-Takbeer — the anniversary of Pakistan’s...
Afghan puzzle
Updated 28 May, 2024

Afghan puzzle

Unless these elements are neutralised, it will not be possible to have the upper hand over terrorist groups.
Attacking minorities
28 May, 2024

Attacking minorities

Mobs turn into executioners due to the authorities’ helplessness before these elements.
Persistent scourge
28 May, 2024

Persistent scourge

THE challenge of polio in Pakistan has reached a new nadir, drawing grave concerns from the Technical Advisory Group...