Claudia Cardinale, star of 8½ and The Leopard, dies at 87

ROME — Claudia Cardinale, the Italian screen icon whose work helped define European cinema in the 1960s and 1970s, has died at age 87, AFP reported Tuesday.

She appeared in more than 100 films and television productions, but was best known for her roles in Federico Fellini’s 1963 film 8½, co-starring with Marcello Mastroianni, and Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard later that year, as well as Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

Cardinale died in Nemours, France, surrounded by her children, her agent Laurent Savry told AFP. Savry and his agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Born in Tunis to Sicilian parents who had emigrated to North Africa, Cardinale began her screen career at 17 after winning a beauty contest in Tunisia. The contest brought her to the Venice Film Festival, where she drew the attention of the Italian film 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.' Her ascent followed in the wake of Sophia Loren’s stardom, and she was widely touted as Italy’s answer to Brigitte Bardot.

Her Hollywood forays were notable for select projects: Blindfold (1965) with Rock Hudson and Don’t Make Waves (1967) with Tony Curtis. She later highlighted The Professionals (1966), directed by Richard Brooks, as among her finest Hollywood work, alongside Burt Lancaster, Jack Palance, Robert Ryan and Lee Marvin. She said the studio system once pressed for an exclusivity contract, but she refused, saying, '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.' The Professionals remains one of her most celebrated American collaborations.

In later years Cardinale collected a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice, and in 2000 she was named a UNESCO goodwill ambassador for the defense of women’s rights. She had two children, one with Franco Cristaldi, who managed her early career and to whom she was married from 1966 to 1975, and a second with Italian director Pasquale Squitieri.

Her passing is noted as the end of an era for European cinema, a reminder of a generation that bridged Italian neorealism and the broader reach of the European art-house movement. Cardinale’s work across more than 100 film and television productions helped anchor a period when European cinema achieved unprecedented cross-border influence. She remained a symbol of resilience and talent whose international acclaim grew alongside the films that defined her era.