Claudia Cardinale, the Tunisian-born Italian star of The Leopard, 8 1/2 and Pink Panther, has died at the age of 87.
Sixties screen siren Claudia Cardinale, who died on Tuesday aged 87, entranced audiences across the globe with the sultry gaze that made her the muse of Luchino Visconti and Federico Fellini.
With her fierce beauty and husky voice, Cardinale not only captivated Italy’s greatest filmmakers, she played opposite most of the leading men of the time, from Burt Lancaster to Alain Delon and Henry Fonda.
She died at Nemours near Paris, in the presence of her children, her agent told AFP, adding that the date and place of her burial had not yet been fixed.
“She leaves us the legacy of a free and inspired woman both as a woman and as an artiste,” Laurent Savry said in a message.
Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli called her “one of the greatest Italian actresses of all time” and said Cardinale embodied “Italian grace”.
Cardinale’s fairytale career began as a nightmare.
She was raped in her teens by a film producer and became pregnant. With few options open at the time, she made the tough decision to bring up her son Patrick and try “to earn a living and her independence” from cinema, even though she never wanted to be in films.
“I did it for him, for Patrick, the child I wanted to keep despite the circumstances and the enormous scandal,” she told French daily Le Monde in 2017.
“I was very young, shy, prudish, almost wild. And without the slightest wish to expose myself on the film sets.”
Claudia Cardinale early career
Born in Tunis in 1938 to Sicilian parents, Cardinale rose to prominence after winning a beauty contest at the age of 17. The victory brought her to the attention of filmmakers, leading her to pursue a career in the Italian film industry. She made her screen debut in 1958 with Big Deal on Madonna Street, a classic comedy in which she played a young Sicilian woman. The film’s producer, Franco Cristaldi, went on to guide her early career; the two later married and lived together from 1966 to 1975.
Claudia Cardinale was loved in The Leopard
Cardinale quickly established herself as a major star, appearing in a string of acclaimed films. She worked with director Federico Fellini in 8½ (1963), portrayed Princess Angelica in Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard (1963), and played a central role in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), considered one of the definitive Westerns. Her career spanned more than five decades, during which she appeared in both European and international productions.
Cardinale was recognised not only for her on-screen presence but also for her contribution to cinema as a cultural ambassador. She received numerous honours over her lifetime, including awards from international film festivals.
Her death marks the passing of an actress long associated with the golden era of Italian cinema.
How did Claudia Cardinale begin her career?
Cardinale began her movie-career at the age of 17 after winning a beauty contest in Tunisia, where she was born of Sicilian parents who had emigrated to North Africa. The contest brought her to the Venice Film Festival, where she came to the attention of the Italian movie industry.
Before entering the beauty contest she had expected to become a school teacher.
“The fact I’m making movies is just an accident,” Cardinale recalled while accepting a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002. “When they asked me, ‘Do you want to be in the movies?’ I said no and they insisted for six months.”
Claudia Cardinale in “The Leopard” from 1963. 20thCentury Fox/Everett Collection
Her success came in the wake of Sophia Loren’s international stardom and she was touted as Italy’s answer to Brigitte Bardot. While never achieving the level of success of the French actor, Cardinale nonetheless was considered a star and worked with the leading directors in Europe and Hollywood.
“They gave me everything,” she once said. “It’s marvelous to live so many lives. I’ve been living more than 150 lives, totally different women.”
One of her earliest roles was as a black-clad Sicilian girl in the 1958 comedy classic “Big Deal on Madonna Street.” It was produced by Franco Cristaldi, who managed her early career and to whom she was married from 1966 to 1975.
A European performer first
The sensuous brunette with enormous eyes was often cast as a hot-blooded woman. As she had a deep voice and spoke Italian with a heavy French accent, her voice was dubbed in her early movies.
Her career in Hollywood brought only partial success because she was not interested in giving up European film. Nonetheless, she achieved some fame by teaming with Rock Hudson in the 1965 comedy thriller “Blindfold” and another comedy, “Don’t Make Waves” with Tony Curtis, two years later.
Cardinale herself considered the 1966 “The Professionals,” directed by Richard Brooks, as the best of her Hollywood films, where she starred alongside Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance, Robert Ryan and Lee Marvin.
In a 2002 interview with the Guardian, she explained that the Hollywood studio “wanted me to sign a contract of exclusivity, and I refused. Because I’m a European actress and I was going there for movies.”
Italian actor Claudia Cardinale, star of ‘The Leopard,’ dead at 87 https://t.co/QKHcTRohTH pic.twitter.com/Zkyi2jBmtG
— New York Post (@nypost) September 24, 2025
“And I had a big opportunity with Richard Brooks, ‘The Professionals,’ which is really a magnificent movie,” she said. “For me ‘The Professionals’ is the best I did in Hollywood.”
Claudia Cardinale congratulates Giorgio Armani after he received the “BAMBI 1998” media award in November 1998. Ralph Orlowski/Reuters
Among her industry prizes was a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement that she received at the Venice Film Festival nearly 40 years after her initial appearance on screen.
In 2000, Cardinale was named a goodwill ambassador for the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for the defense of women’s rights.
She had two children. One with Cristaldi and a second with her later companion, Italian director Pasquale Squitieri.
What shaped Claudia Cardinale’s personal life?
Claudia Cardinale’s life was marked by resilience and independence. She gave birth to her son, Patrick, in London in 1957, though her parents initially raised him as her brother. She married Cristaldi in Las Vegas in 1966 but later described the marriage as controlling, saying, “I was just an employee, like an office worker,” according to her daughter, Claudia Squitieri.
She later lived with director Pasquale Squitieri, with whom she had a daughter in 1979. They remained together for 40 years until his death in 2017. During this period, Cardinale appeared in almost a dozen of Squitieri’s films and the 1977 television mini-series Jesus of Nazareth.
What made Claudia Cardinale a cinematic icon?
Claudia Cardinale combined beauty, charisma, and rugged independence. Critics praised her ability to hold her own alongside leading men such as Charles Bronson, Henry Fonda, and Klaus Kinski. Antonio Monda, artistic director of the Rome Film Festival, said, “There was something free about her, a strong personality that would never be tamed.”
Film historian Vito Zigarrio noted that Claudia Cardinale’s roles often “become an icon, something between reality and unreality… this ambiguity between fantasy and reality makes the character very intense.”
How did Claudia Cardinale impact the world off-screen?
In her later years, Claudia Cardinale lived in Nemours with her children, where she established a foundation supporting women and the arts. In 2000, she was named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for her advocacy for women’s rights and education. Her daughter said, “She was always very humble… she always, always, always stopped to sign autographs. She detested the idea of bodyguards; she always wanted to be as close as she could to people.”
In 2023, the Museum of Modern Art in New York hosted a 23-film retrospective of Claudia Cardinale’s work, celebrating her enduring influence on cinema.
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