Lidia Quaranta (6 March 1891 – 5 March 1928) was an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

stage and film actress of the early 20th century.

Early career

Lidia Gemma Mattia Quaranta was born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, the older sister of twins Isabella and Letizia Quaranta. She began her stage career in the theatre company of Italian actor and director

Dante Testa Dante Testa (24 August 1861 – 3 March 1923) was an Italian stage and film actor and theatre and film director whose career began in the 1880s. Biography Born in Turin, Dante Testa became one of great exponents of theatre in the Piedmontese lan ...

.''Enciclopedia del cinema in Piemonte''
/ref> In 1910 Quaranta and her sister Letizia were hired by

Itala Film Itala Film was an Italian film production company. Silent era It was founded during the silent era. In 1905, industrialists Carlo Rossi and William Remmert established a company in Turin, recruiting filmmakers from Pathé. Two years later, they ...

. However, she made her film debut in the 1910

Edoardo Bencivenga Edoardo Bencivenga (Naples, ? – Rome, June 6, 1934) was an Italian film director; Bencivegna started in 1907 filming his first short film ''Raffaello e la Fornarina '', in his career he made over 60 films, the last one in 1922. Filmography * ...

-directed short ''L'ignota'' (English release title: ''The Unknown Woman'') for the little-known

Aquila Films Aquila Films was a Turin-based Italian film production and distribution company of the silent era. It was formed in 1907. The company produced many crime and mystery films, promoting them in a sensationalist way. The company's production expanded ...

. In 1911, she would appear in her first film for Itala titled ''Clio e Filete'' (''Clio and Filete''), directed by Oreste Mentasti. She would go on to perform in a number of short films for Itala, including the popular 1913 crime-drama ''Tigris'' opposite actor Dante Cappelli. During the 1910s, she would also work for such film companies as Tiber, Excelsa and

Ambrosio Film Ambrosio Film was an Italian film production and distribution company which played a leading role in Italian cinema during the silent era. Established in Turin in 1906 by the pioneering filmmaker Arturo Ambrosio, assisted by cinematographers Gi ...

.Profile
torinocittadelcinema.it; accessed 18 March 2015.

Stardom

In 1914, Quaranta was cast in the title role in the lavish epic silent film ''

Cabiria ''Cabiria'' is a 1914 Italian epic silent film, directed by Giovanni Pastrone and shot in Turin. The film is set in ancient Sicily, Carthage, and Cirta during the period of the Second Punic War (218–202 BC). It follows a melodramatic mai ...

'', directed by

Giovanni Pastrone Giovanni Pastrone, also known by his artistic name Piero Fosco (13 September 1883 – 27 June 1959), was an Italian film pioneer, director, screenwriter, actor and technician. Pastrone was born in Montechiaro d'Asti. He worked during the era of ...

and with author Gabriele D’Annunzio cited as a scriptwriter. The film is set in ancient

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...

, and

Cirta Cirta, also known by various other names in antiquity, was the ancient Berber and Roman settlement which later became Constantine, Algeria. Cirta was the capital city of the Berber kingdom of Numidia; its strategically important port city ...

during the period of the Second Punic War (218–202 BC). It follows a melodramatic main plot about an abducted girl, Cabiria, and features an eruption of Mount Etna, heinous religious rituals in

, the alpine trek of Hannibal, Archimedes' defeat of the Roman fleet at the Siege of Syracuse and Scipio Africanus maneuvering in North Africa. Apart from being a classic on its own terms, the film is also notable for being the first film in which the long-running film character

Maciste Maciste () is one of the oldest recurring characters of cinema, created by Gabriele d'Annunzio and Giovanni Pastrone. He is featured throughout the history of the cinema of Italy from the 1910s to the mid-1960s. He is usually depicted as a Herc ...

(played by

Bartolomeo Pagano Bartolomeo Pagano (27 September 1878 – 24 June 1947) was an Italian motion picture actor. Before his cinema career, Pagano was a stevedore who worked at the port of Genoa. There, he was discovered and selected to play the role of Maciste, a m ...

) makes his debut. Running nearly three hours (14 reels), the film was one of the first feature-length films and was both critically and financially successful and launched Quaranta into international stardom. From 1915 to 1920, she appeared in several films for Turin-based production companies such as Gloria and Savoia Studios. At the height of her popularity, she was earning a then unprecedented ₤10,000 lire a month during her contract with Itala Film, making her Italy's highest paid film actress of the era.

Later career and death

After 1920, Quaranta would appear in several films for Fert Studios, Photodrama and Circe Film. Her last film appearance was in the 1925

Mario Camerini Mario Camerini (6 February 1895 – 4 February 1981) was an Italian film director and screenwriter. The cousin of Augusto Genina, he made the most well-known films in Italy during the 1930s, most of them comedies starring Vittorio De Sica. H ...

-directed ''Voglio tradire mio marito'', starring Augusto Bandini and

Alberto Collo Alberto Collo (6 May 1883 – 7 May 1955) was an Italian actor who appeared in more than a hundred and thirty films during his career, mostly during the silent era. During the 1910s he starred in several films directed by Baldassarre Negroni.Molit ...

.BFI Film Forever
accessed 18 March 2015 In early 1928, while at home in Turin, Quaranta fell ill with

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

. She languished in illness for several months before dying on the day before her 37th birthday. She had appeared in over seventy films.

References

Bibliography

*Moliterno, Gino. ''Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema''. Scarecrow Press, 2008.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Quaranta, Lidia 1891 births 1928 deaths Actors from Turin Italian stage actresses Italian film actresses Italian silent film actresses 20th-century Italian actresses Deaths from pneumonia in Piedmont