Valentina Cortese
- Birthday
- Jan 1, 1925
- Birthplace
- Milan, Lombardy, Italy
Bio: Actress Valentina Cortese began appearing in Italian films at age 15. Attaining stardom in the 1948 Anglo-French production The Glass Mountain (1948), Cortese was brought to the U.S. to co-star opposite Orson Welles in Black Magic (1949). She was then signed to a contract by Darryl F. Zanuck, who emphasized her Mediterranean background by changing the spelling of… More Bio: Actress Valentina Cortese began appearing in Italian films at age 15. Attaining stardom in the 1948 Anglo-French production The Glass Mountain (1948), Cortese was brought to the U.S. to co-star opposite Orson Welles in Black Magic (1949). She was then signed to a contract by Darryl F. Zanuck, who emphasized her Mediterranean background by changing the spelling of her name to Cortesa. One of her starring films was 1951's The House on Telegraph Hill, in which she appeared with Richard Basehart, to whom she was married from 1951 to 1970. By 1952, Cortese had struck out in Hollywood, and was back making pictures in Europe and England; ironically, it was during this period that she essayed her best-known role in an American-produced film: Countess Eleanora Torlato-Favrini in The Barefoot Contessa (1954). Surviving long past the "young female lead" stage, Cortese did some of her finest work in her middle years. When Ingrid Bergman, accepting the 1974 "Best Supporting Actress" Academy Award for her minor role in Murder on the Orient Express, announced to the world that she thought the prize should have gone to Valentine Cortese for her bravura performance as a drink-besotted film star in Truffaut's Day for Night (1973), there were quite a few out there in Televisionland who wholeheartedly agreed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Most Popular
Filmography
-
The Walk (La Passeggiata) (2013)
- Actor
-
Axel Munthe - Der Arzt von San Michele (2012)
- Actor
-
Storia di una capinera (Sparrow) (1993)
- Mother Superior
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Buster's Bedroom (1990)
- Serafina
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The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1989)
- Queen Ariadne/Violet
- 92%
- See all 38 films
Valentina Cortese Videos
The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen
2 minutes 48 seconds
Juliet Of The Spirits
2 minutes 20 seconds
When Time Ran Out
1 minutes 12 seconds
Malaya
30 seconds
Thieves' Highway
2 minutes 7 seconds
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