Claudia Cardinale, Icon of 1960s European Cinema, Dies at 87

Claudia Cardinale, the Italian screen icon whose work helped define European cinema in the 1960s and left a lasting mark on Hollywood, has died at age 87. She died Tuesday in the French commune of Nemours near Paris, with her children by her side, her agent Laurent Savry told Agence France-Presse. Savry described Cardinale as leaving “the legacy of a free and inspired woman both as a woman and as an artiste.”

Cardinale’s career spanned continents and genres, making her one of the era’s most enduring symbols of glamour and versatility. In English-language film, she is best remembered as Jill McBain, the former prostitute who becomes a rancher’s widow in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968). She also played the exiled Princess Dala who owns the world’s largest diamond in The Pink Panther (1963) opposite David Niven and Peter Sellers. Her name, however, was inseparable from the Italian and French cinema that propelled world cinema into a new age.

In Italy, Cardinale was celebrated for performances that ranged from Visconti’s The Leopard (1963) to Fellini’s 8½ (1963). The Leopard, a sweeping epic about Sicily’s upheaval during Italy’s unification, was a pivotal project that she completed alongside the international stars of the era, including Alain Delon and Burt Lancaster. Fellini’s 8½, in which she appeared as one of Guido Anselmi’s actresses, solidified her status as a leading figure in art-house cinema. She twice juggled major projects in the same year, famously balancing The Leopard and 8½ on parallel schedules while navigating the demands of a language that was not initially her own.

Born in Tunis in 1938 to a Sicilian family, Cardinale grew up in a Francophone and Arabic-speaking milieu. She rose from a beauty contest win in Tunis to the Venice Film Festival, where she impressed producers with her poise and presence. Yet her start in cinema was shaped by tough personal choices. At 19, she was raped by a Frenchman and became pregnant with her son Patrick. Under the advice of producer Franco Cristaldi, she entered show business in Rome to support her child, concealing part of her early life from the public as she built her career. She recalled years later that she filmed while pregnant and that the modesty of her era often masked the truth from audiences and even from her own family at times.

(From early days in cinema to a life shaped by professional and personal trials, Cardinale’s path reflects the complexities of stardom in mid-20th-century Europe. She later said in a 2017 Le Monde interview that she entered the industry with a fierce yet private resolve, balancing ambition with the realities of motherhood and social expectations.)

Cardinale’s screen debut came with small roles in Goha (1958) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) as she began to establish herself in Rome’s film industry. Despite early flirtations from international producers, she maintained a careful approach to fame and language, often working in languages she was still learning, and allowing her performances to do the talking. Her partnership with Franco Cristaldi in the 1950s and 1960s anchored a prolific period that broadened her reach across European cinema and into American productions.

The 1960s proved decisive for Cardinale. In The Leopard, she delivered a performance that captured the era’s shift from aristocratic splendor to a modern, conflicted social order. In 8½, she performed opposite a constellation of European stars as Fellini explored the psyche of a filmmaker in crisis. The Pink Panther expanded her international profile by pairing her with Peter Sellers and Mvel David Niven on a blockbuster that remains a cultural touchstone of the era. In the same year, she merged with Fellini’s ensemble again, underscoring her status as a muse of European cinema.

She also collaborated with a roster of acclaimed actors, including Henry Fonda, Marcello Mastroianni, Alain Delon, Burt Lancaster and Sean Connery, across projects that spanned genres from historical drama to comedy and adventure. In 1969 she appeared in The Red Tent, a Soviet-helmed adventure drama directed by Mikhail Kalatozov, a film that took her beyond Western European cinema into broader international collaborations.

As her career evolved, Cardinale navigated the changing landscape of film in the 1970s and 1980s. She left Cristaldi in 1975 and began a long artistic and personal partnership with Italian director Pasquale Squitieri, with whom she worked on mafia-themed dramas such as Corleone (1978) and the biographical Claretta (1984), in which she portrayed Mussolini’s mistress. The era also saw her explore other media, including a brief foray into disco-era music with the 1977 single Love Affair, reflecting the era’s cross-genre experimentation.

Her later projects included Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo (1982) and a noted miniseries portrayal in Jesus of Nazareth (a 1977 television event that broadened her reach to television audiences around the world). Across the decades, Cardinale kept working in Italian cinema and on international co-productions, building a diverse body of work that remains a touchstone for both classic cinema enthusiasts and contemporary filmmakers.

Cardinale’s passing marks the end of an era for a generation of actors who defined a global moment for European cinema. Her career embodied a bridge between French and Italian filmmaking and the broader Hollywood ecosystem, and she remains celebrated for her fearless artistry, her resilience in the face of personal challenges, and her ability to bring depth and vulnerability to some of the era’s most memorable characters. Her legacy includes a lasting influence on how European cinema is perceived on the world stage, and she is remembered as one of the defining figures of mid-20th-century film.