Elsa Martinelli obit

Elsa Martinelli, Star of ‘The Indian Fighter,’ Dies

 

She was not on the list.

ROME, Italy — Italian actress Elsa Martinelli, who starred opposite Kirk Douglas in the 1955 Western “The Indian Fighter” and went on to gain international recognition working with such directors as Mario Monicelli, Roger Vadim, Orson Welles, Howard Hawks, and Elio Petri, died Saturday in Rome. She was 82.

Born in the Tuscan city of Grosseto, Martinelli moved to Rome in the early 1950s and started a career as a model after her slim physique was noticed by fashion designer Roberto Capucci. She soon appeared in Vogue and Life, where she was noticed by Kirk Douglas’ wife, Anne Buydens.

Martinelli made her acting debut in 1954 in the Stendhal adaptation “Le Rouge et le Noir,” directed by France’s Claude Autant-Lara. But her breakout role came the following year in Andre de Toth’s “The Indian Fighter,” which Douglas produced.

“Sex in the person of Elsa Martinelli, Italian actress introduced here, and the relationship of her Indian maid character with Douglas is a story factor and ballyhoo point,” Variety’s review said.

Martinelli went on to alternating roles in European and U.S. productions, working with Monicelli in “Donatella” (1956); with Vadim, opposite Mel Ferrer, in “Blood and Roses” (1960); with Howard Hawks and John Wayne in “Hatari!” (1962); with Welles in Kafka adaptation “The Trial” (1962); and with Petri in campy social satire “The 10th Victim” alongside Marcello Mastroianni and Ursula Andress (1965).

Martinelli’s role as a lower-class young woman mistaken for a high-society lady in “Donatella” won her the Silver Bear acting award at the 1956 Berlin Film Festival.

She appeared in more than 40 feature films and, starting in the 1970s, veered more toward TV work in Italy, most recently in hit miniseries “Orgoglio” in 2005, in which she played the Duchess of Monteforte.

Martinelli’s last role in an English-language film was as Carla the Agent in Eugene Levy-directed ensemble comedy “Once Upon a Crime,” in 1992.

Martinelli married twice, first to Franco Mancinelli Scotti di San Vito and subsequently, in 1968, to Paris Match photographer Willy Rizzo.

She is survived by a daughter from her first marriage, Cristiana Mancinelli, who is also an actress.

Filmography

Charles Boyer and Elsa Martinelli in The Rogues (1964)

Martinelli in Rice Girl (1956)

Martinelli in The 10th Victim (1965)

In Orson Welles's The Trial with Anthony Perkins in 1963

    The Red and the Black (1954) (uncredited)

    If You Won a Hundred Million (1954) as Anna (segment "L'indossatrice")

    The Indian Fighter (1955) as Onahti

    Rice Girl (1956) as Elena Nardi

    Donatella (1956) as Donatella Guiscardi

    Four Girls in Town (1957) as Maria Antonelli

    Manuela (1957) as Manuela Hunt

    La mina (1958) as Lucia

    Prisoner of the Volga (1959) as Mascha

    Ciao, ciao bambina! (1959) as Diana

    Tunis Top Secret (1959) as Kathy Sands

    Wild Cats on the Beach (1959) as Doriana

    Bad Girls Don't Cry (1959) as Anna

    I piaceri del sabato notte (1960) as L'indossatrice romana

    Blood and Roses (1960) as Georgia Monteverdi

    Il carro armato dell'8 settembre (1960) as Mirella

    Captain Blood (1960) as Gisèle d'Angoulême

    Love in Rome (1960) as Fulvia

    The Menace (1961) as Lucile

    Hatari! (1962) as Anna Maria 'Dallas' D'Allesandro

    The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962) as Antonella Massimo

    Pelle viva (1962) as Rosaria

    The Trial (1962) as Hilda

    The V.I.P.s (1963) as Gloria Gritti

    Rampage (1963) as Anna

    All About Loving (1964) as Mathilde

    Marco the Magnificent (1965) as The Woman with the Whip

    Je vous salue, mafia! (1965) as Sylvia

    Diamonds Are Brittle (1965) as Juliette

    L'or du duc (1965) as Sonia

    The 10th Victim (1965) as Olga

    How I Learned to Love Women (1966) as Monica the rallye driver

    Maroc 7 (1967) as Claudia

    The Oldest Profession (1967) as Domitilla (segment "Nuits romaines, Les")

    Woman Times Seven (1967) as Pretty woman (segment "Super Simone")

    Every Man Is My Enemy (1967) as Laureen

    Manon 70 (1968) as Annie

    The Belle Starr Story (1968) as Belle Starr

    Madigan's Millions (1968) as Vic Shaw

    Candy (1968) as Livia

    If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) as Maria, Woman on Venetian bridge

    Maldonne (1969) as Gilberte de Baer

    Una sull'altra (1969) as Jane Bleeker

    The Pleasure Pit (1969) as Martine

    L'amica (1969) as Carla Nervi

    OSS 117 Takes a Vacation (1970) as Elsa

    La araucana (1971) as Inés de Suárez

    The Lion's Share (1971) as Annie

    Garofano rosso (1976) as Zobeida

    I Am an ESP (1985) as Carla Razzi

    Pigmalione 88 (1988)

    Once Upon a Crime (1992) as Carla the Agent