Italian actress Antonella Lualdi died on August 10 at the age of 92. She was best known to French audiences for her role as Lucia Cordier in “Les Cordier, magistrate et flic”, but she was a big movie star of the 50s and 60s.
Italian media ANSA announced the death of actress Antonella Lualdi, who died on Thursday August 10 at the age of 92. She began her career in 1949 and entered French homes playing Lucia Cordier for sixteen years, the wife of the character of Pierre Mondy in Les Cordier, judge and cop then Commissioner Cordier.
First film at 20
Daughter of an Italian engineer and a Lebanese woman of Greek origin, Antonella Lualdi, whose real name is Antonietta De Pascale, left Beirut at the start of the Second World War to settle with her family in Milan. A student in Florence, she successfully tried her hand at acting and modeling.
At the dawn of the 1950s, when she was not yet 20 years old, she launched herself into the cinema by participating in the shooting of three feature films: the musical Signorinella, the peplum Échec à Borgia and Pour l’amour from heaven with Jean Gabin.
Chabrol, Autant-Lara and Christian-Jacques
During this decade, the one who is already considered the equal of Gina Lollobrigida radiates several films with her mixed beauty, and not the least: The Coat (1952), adaptation of a short story by Nikolaï Gogol by Alberto Lattuada, the sketch comedy Adorable Creatures (id.) by Christian-Jaque, Le Rouge et le Noir (1954) by Claude Autant-Lara, which will bring her consecration, as well as Les Amoureux (1955), a work in which she gives the reply to her husband Franco Interlenghi.
At his side, she will also play in Non c’è amore più grande (1955), Our most beautiful years (1956), The Young Husbands (1957) or even Hit and run (1958). Divided between Italy and France, Antonella Lualdi is very prolific, alternating genres and each time bringing her glamorous touch to productions that are sometimes quite dark such as Beware of girls (1957), Match against death (1959), Les Garçons (id.), I’ll go spit on your graves (id.) as well as A double tour (id.) by Claude Chabrol, a drama during which his character is murdered.
Vincent, François, Paul and the others
In the 1960s, Antonella Lualdi shone in a few adventure stories, inspired by true historical facts (The Mongols, Surcouf, the tiger of the seven seas and its Thunder suite over the Indian Ocean) or based on mythological tales (The Titans , 1962), but it is beginning to become rarer on the big screen.
The following decade saw her ride the wave of “Poliziottesco” (a rather violent Italian thriller) under the direction of directors who were experts in the field – Stelvio Massi, Gianni Crea, Roberto Gorimetti – and distinguished herself in France in a few mini-series such as La Corde au cou or Les Eygletière. From this period, we will also remember his performance with Claude Sautet in the excellent Vincent, François, Paul and the others.
The Cordiers
From the 1980s, the actress began a real crossing of the desert from which she would not emerge until 1992, thanks to the successful series Les Cordier, judge and cop then Commissioner Cordier. Her character is that of Lucia, wife of the police commissioner played by Pierre Mondy. His last film, La bella società, was released in 2010.