1941-11-28 ( 83 years old ) in Pola, Croatia
Laura Antonelli (née Antonaz; 28 November 1941 – 22 June 2015) was an Italian film actress, who appeared in 45 films between 1964 and 1991, and she is best known for the movie Malizia.
Antonelli was born Laura Antonaz in Pola, Kingdom of Italy (in Croatian, Pula), former capital of Istria. After the war, her parents fled what was then Yugoslavia, lived in Italian refugee camps and eventually settled in Naples, where her father found work as a hospital administrator. Antonelli had a childhood interest in mathematics, but as a teenager, she became proficient at gymnastics. In an interview for The New York Times, she recalled, "My parents had made me take hours of gym classes during my teens ... They felt I was ugly, clumsy, insignificant and they hoped I would at least develop some grace. I became very good, especially in rhythmical gym, which is a kind of dance."
Setting aside ambitions to make a career in mathematics, she graduated as a gymnastics instructor. She moved to Rome, where she became a secondary-school gym teacher and was able to meet people in the entertainment industry, who helped her find modelling jobs.
Antonelli's earliest engagements included Italian advertisements for Coca-Cola. In 1965, she made her first feature-film appearance in Le sedicenni, although her performance went uncredited. Her American debut came in 1966 in Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. Other roles followed; her breakthrough came in 1973's Malizia. She appeared in a number of sex farces such as Till Marriage Do Us Part/Mio Dio come sono caduta in basso!.
She worked in more serious films, as well, including Luchino Visconti's last film, The Innocent (1976). In Wifemistress, a romance film of 1977, she played a repressed wife experiencing a sexual awakening. Later, she appeared in Passione d'Amore (1981). From 1986 she mostly worked on Italian television series. Antonelli's final film role was in the sequel Malizia 2000 (1991), following which she retired. She won the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Award, Nastro d'Argento, in 1974 for Malizia.
Antonelli was married to publisher Enrico Piacentini but they divorced. From 1972 to 1980, she was the companion of actor Jean-Paul Belmondo.
On 27 April 1991, cocaine was found during a police raid on Antonelli's home. She was subsequently convicted of possession and dealing and sentenced to house arrest. She spent ten years appealing the conviction, which was eventually overturned. In 2006, the Italian court of appeals ruled in favor of Antonelli and ordered the Ministry of Justice to pay the actress 108,000 euros.
Antonelli died on 22 June 2015, aged 73, from a heart attack.
Source: Article "Laura Antonelli" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Movies
Senza malizia
2023-07-05
Malizia 2000
1991-11-01
Time of Indifference
1991-04-21
The Miser
1990-04-06
Stuff for the Rich
1987-11-13
Rimini Rimini
1987-02-27
Department Store
1986-06-06
The Venetian Woman
1986-04-04
The Trap
1985-09-11
Slices of Life
1985-02-06
Viuuulentemente mia
1982-10-21
Sesso e volentieri
1982-10-14
Holy Cow
1982-09-23
Chaste and Pure
1981-10-30
Il turno
1981-09-18
Passion of Love
1981-09-16
I'm Getting a Yacht
1980-12-23
Hypochondriac
1979-12-20
Tigers in Lipstick
1979-03-16
Black Journal
1977-11-24
Wifemistress
1977-10-27
The Innocent
1976-05-18
The Divine Nymph
1975-10-16
Till Marriage Do Us Part
1974-10-24
Lovers and Other Relatives
1974-06-06
Simona
1974-02-22
How Funny Can Sex Be?
1973-12-19
Malicious
1973-03-29
Scoundrel in White
1972-09-29
The Eroticist
1972-03-16
Secret Fantasy
1971-09-22
Without Apparent Motive
1971-09-15
The Married Couple of the Year Two
1971-04-07
Bali
1970-12-29
A Man Called Sledge
1970-11-14
Gradiva
1970-01-01
Venus in Furs
1969-11-25
Detective Belli
1969-09-06
The Archangel
1969-07-02
The Sexual Revolution
1968-11-21
Pardon, Are You for or Against?
1966-12-23
Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs
1966-07-29
Le sedicenni
1965-12-24
The Magnificent Cuckold
1964-10-19
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