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Italian Actress Elsa Martinelli, Who Famously Starred in The Indian Fighter,
Dead at 82: Reports
 
By Dave Quinn@NineDaves
Posted on July 8, 2017 at 12:55pm EDT
 
Italian actress Elsa Martinelli, known to U.S. audiences her breakout role in
1955's The Indian Fighter opposite Kirk Douglas, died Saturday in Rome at the
age of 82, according to Italian media.
 
Born in Tuscany, Martinelli began her career as a model - appearing in the
pages of Vogue and on the cover of Life. She then began taking on smaller roles
in films, becoming one of the first models to make the crossover into film and
paving the way for stars like Cameron Diaz, Sofia Vergara, and Charlize Theron.
 
A role in 1954's Le Rouge et le Noir -  the French drama film directed by
Claude Autant-Lara based on the novel The Red and the Black by Stendhal - would
get her noticed by European audiences.
 
Kirk Douglas' wife Anne Buydens noticed too and approached her about playing a
part in The Indian Fighter, which Douglas was producing. "She spoke French so I
was able to understand what she was saying," Martinelli told Cinema Retro in
2012. "And so I got started."
 
While Martinelli famously passed up a role in 1960's Spartacus to have her
daughter Cristiana, she would continue to have a prosperous career on screen -
appearing in over 40 films including Hatari! (1962), The V.I.P.s (1963), The
10th Victim (1965) and Madigan's Millions (1968).
 
Roles on TV would follow. Her lasted credited part was in 2005 on the Italian
television series Orgoglio.
 
Throughout it all, she took chances. "I've made movies with directors who never
did direct before, at least five or six films with novice directors," she told
Cinema Retro. "I like to take risks. Because if it's a special story, I sense
that somebody special might be behind it."
 
Martinelli was married twice - first to Count Franco Mancinelli Scotti di San
Vito, whom she divorced in 1966, and then to Paris Match photographer and 1970s
furniture designer, Willy Rizzo, who died in 2013 at the age of 84.
 
 
Regards,
 
Roger

--- PQUSA