Claudia Cardinale

Claudia Cardinale (born 15 April 1938) is an Italian Tunisian actress, and has appeared in some of the most prominent European films of the 1960s and 1970s. Her primary language is French, and the majority of Cardinale's films have been either Italian or French. She was also an iconic sex symbol of the 1960s. Claudia Cardinale was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette, a neighborhood of Tunis, Tunisia. Her mother, Yolande Greco, was born in Tunisia to Sicilian emigrants from Trapani, Sicily, Italy. Her father was a Sicilian railway worker, born in Gela, Sicily, Italy. Her native languages were French, Tunisian Arabic, and the Sicilian language of her parents. She did not learn to speak Italian until she had already begun to be cast for Italian films. In 1957, Cardinale won the Italian embassy's 'Most Beautiful Italian Girl in Tunisia' contest. The contest included a trip to the Venice Film Festival, bringing Cardinale to the attention of the Italian movie industry. Her feature film debut was Goha (1957), a French-Tunisian co-production.

Actor