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Anna Magnani

Anna Magnani

Actor · 1908 – 1973 · Rome, Italy

Anna Magnani (pronounced: mahn-YANEE; 7 March 1908 – 26 September 1973) was an Italian stage and film actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress, along with four other international awards, for her portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo. Born in Rome to an Egyptian father and an Italian mother, she worked her way through Rome's Academy of Dramatic Art by singing at night clubs. During her career, her only child was stricken by polio when he was 18 months old and remained crippled. She was referred to as "La Lupa," the "perennial toast of Rome" and a "living she-wolf symbol" of the cinema. Time magazine described her personality as "fiery", and drama critic Harold Clurman said her acting was "volcanic". In the realm of Italian cinema, she was "passionate, fearless, and exciting," an actress that film historian Barry Monush calls "the volcanic earth mother of all Italian cinema." Director Roberto Rossellini called her "the greatest acting genius since Eleonora Duse. Playwright Tennessee Williams became an admirer of her acting and wrote The Rose Tattoo specifically for her to star in, a role for which she received her first Oscar in 1955. After meeting director Goffredo Alessandrini she received her first screen role in La cieca di Sorrento (The Blind Woman of Sorrento) (1934) and later achieved international fame in Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945), considered the first significant movie to launch the Italian neorealism movement in cinema. As an actress she became recognized for her dynamic and forceful portrayals of "earthy lower-class women" in such films as The Miracle (1948), Bellissima (1951), The Rose Tattoo (1955), The Fugitive Kind (1960), with Marlon Brando and directed by Sidney Lumet, and Mamma Roma (1962). As early as 1950, Life magazine had already stated that Magnani was "one of the most impressive actresses since Garbo". Description above from the Wikipedia article Anna Magnani, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia​

Movies21

  • Movie8.0

    Roma città aperta

    Rome, Open City

    1945 · 1K votes

  • Movie7.3

    Roma

    1972 · 375 votes

  • Movie6.9
  • Movie6.9

    The Fugitive Kind

    1960 · 122 votes

  • Movie6.9

    The Rose Tattoo

    1955 · 89 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Il bandito

    The Bandit

    1946 · 29 votes

  • Movie7.9

    Mamma Roma

    1962 · 447 votes

  • Movie9.0
  • Movie7.1

    Le Carrosse d'or

    The Golden Coach

    1952 · 90 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Wild Is the Wind

    1957 · 14 votes

  • Movie5.0
  • Movie6.9

    Risate di gioia

    The Passionate Thief

    1960 · 54 votes

  • Movie7.4

    Nella città l'inferno

    Hell in the City

    1959 · 26 votes

  • Movie10.0
  • Movie7.8

    Bellissima

    1952 · 260 votes

  • Movie7.5
  • Movie6.9

    Girlfriend in a Coma

    2012 · 20 votes

  • Movie6.6
  • Movie10.0

    La principessa Tarakanova

    Princess Tarakanova

    1938 · 1 votes

  • Movie7.3
  • Movie9.0

    Bellissimo: Immagini del cinema italiano

    Bellissimo: Images of the Italian Cinema

    1985 · 1 votes

Series3

  • TV7.0

    What's My Line?

    1950 · 29 votes

  • TV7.1

    The Oscars

    1953 · 85 votes

  • TV8.7

    Cinépanorama

    1956 · 3 votes