Virna Lisi Is A Talented Actress

Virna Lisi was born in Ancona, Marche, as Virna Lisa Pieralisi. Lisi began her film career in her teens, in 1953. Cast more for her beauty than her talent, her early films included La Donna del Giorno (1956), Eva (1962), and the Italian-made spectacle Romolo e Remo (1961).

Lisi made a dent in Hollywood comedy as a tempting blue-eyed blonde starring opposite Jack Lemmon in How to Murder Your Wife (1965), and appearing with Tony Curtis in Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966). Confined to glamour roles, she returned to Europe within a few years, but fared little better in such mediocre movies as Arabella (1967). In Europe she starred in films such as La Ragazza e il Generale, co-starring with Rod Steiger, and two films with Anthony Quinn, The Secret of Santa Vittoria, directed by Stanley Kramer, and the war drama The 25th Hour. She also gained attention for a photo of her shaving her face that appeared on the March 1965 cover of Esquire magazine, a photo meant as a provocation of feminism.

In later decades, however, a career renaissance occurred for Virna, culminating with the film La Reine Margot (1994). Portraying a malevolent Catherine de' Medici, she won both the César and Cannes Film Festival awards, along with the David di Donatello award, the Italian equivalent of the Oscar.