Valentina Cortese
Actor
Biography
Valentina Cortese (January 1, 1923 - July 10, 2019) was an Italian film actress.
The Milan-born actress starred in The House on Telegraph Hill (1951) directed by Robert Wise, and costarring Richard Basehart and William Lundigan. Cortese, aged 28, married Basehart in 1951, and had one son with him before they divorced in 1960.
She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1975 for her performance in François Truffaut's Day for Night.
Cortese appeared in Jules Dassin's Thieves' Highway (1949), Joseph L. Mankiewicz's The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Michelangelo Antonioni's Le Amiche (1955), Gérard Brach's The Boat on the Grass, Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), and in the Franco Zeffirelli projects such as the 1972 film Brother Sun, Sister Moon, his 1977 miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth and the 1993 film Sparrow.
Filmography
Day for Night
as Séverine 1973
Juliet of the Spirits
as Valentina 1965
The Barefoot Contessa
as Eleanora Torlato-Favrini 1954
La Classe américaine
as The Helicopter Man's Wife (archive footage) (uncredited) 1993
The Girl Who Knew Too Much
as Laura Craven-Torrani 1963
Barabbas
as Julia 1961
Brother Sun, Sister Moon
as Pica Di Bernardone 1972
Thieves' Highway
as Rica 1949
Le Amiche
as Nene 1955
When Time Ran Out...
as Rose Valdez 1980
The House on Telegraph Hill
as Victoria Kowelska 1951
The Secret of Santa Vittoria
as Gabriella (uncredited) 1970
Appassionata
as Elisa Rutelli 1974
The Possessed
as Irma 1965
The Assassination of Trotsky
as Natalia Trotsky 1972
The Rocket from Calabuch
as Eloísa, la maestra de escuela 1956