Italian Cinema Today

She’s been called “a kind of Audrey Hepburn with sex appeal.” Having worked in Hollywood and Europe, actress Elsa Martinelli’s pure beauty and innocent demeanor made her the perfect silver screen match for stars like Kirk Douglas, John Wayne, and Gabriele Ferzetti. Born in the Tuscan city of Grosetto in 1935, Martinelli moved to Rome with her family and worked as a model in the early 1950s. Shortly thereafter, she began making her transformation to acting by taking small roles in films like Claude Autant-Lara's Le Rouge et le Noir . In 1955, she was noticed by Kirk Douglas’s wife who had seen Martinelli in Vogue magazine and immediately had her in mind for the role of an American Indian for her husband’s forthcoming project. An offer was made and Martinelli was cast as Onahti, the daughter of a Sioux chief in Douglas’s Technicolor Western The Indian Fighter . A year later, she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 6th edition of the Berlin International Film Festiv...