Liliana Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno de Curtis di Bisanzio Gagliardi (10 May 1933 – 3 June 2022), commonly known as Liliana de Curtis, was an Italian actress and writer. She was the daughter of

Totò Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi de Curtis di Bisanzio (15 February 1898 – 15 April 1967), best known by his stage name Totò (), or simply as Antonio de Curtis, and nicknamed ''il Principe della risata ...

and Diana Rogliani.

Early life

De Curtis was born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

in Lazio, Italy on 10 May 1933. Her given name was chosen by Totò in memory of Liliana Castagnola, to whom the Neapolitan actor had been romantically linked before joining Diana Rogliani and who had committed suicide for him.

Career

De Curtis had a brief experience in cinema, participating in the shooting of the film '' Saint John, the Beheaded'' in 1940 and appearing in the 1954 film ''

Orient Express The ''Orient Express'' was a long-distance passenger train service created in 1883 by the Belgian company ''Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits'' (CIWL) that operated until 2009. The train traveled the length of continental Europe and int ...

.'' She appeared in a half-hour documentary for

Rai 3 Rai 3 (formerly Rete 3) is an Italian free-to-air television channel owned and operated by state-owned public broadcaster RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana. It was launched on 15 December 1979 and its programming is centred towards cultural and ...

entitled I knew him well, with speeches by

Ninetto Davoli Giovanni "Ninetto" Davoli (born 11 October 1948) is an Italian actor who became known through his roles in several of Pier Paolo Pasolini's films. Biography Davoli was born in San Pietro a Maida, Calabria. He was discovered by poet, novelist ...

and Giacomo Furia. In 2007 she interpreted herself commenting in voice on the television program ''We are the United States''. In the theater, de Curtis collaborated with author-actor Antonino Miele, with whom she acted in the plays ''Pardon Monsieur Totò'' (alongside Vito Cesaro as well) and ''Totò behind the scenes'' (directed by Mario Di Gilio). With Miele himself and Matilde Amorosi she wrote the book Every limit has a patience, published by Rizzoli Editore and dedicated to Totò. She was often a guest on television, in reminiscent broadcasts of the figure of her father, of which she promoted the memory with events in various places in Italy, also dedicating biographical books, including Malafemmena, published in 2009 by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore.

Personal life

De Curtis had two children, Antonello and Diana, from her first marriage to film producer Gianni Buffardi who she married in 1951. Subsequently, the marriage with Buffardi failed after a few years and she married Sergio Anticoli, with whom she had her daughter Elena (born in 1969, and founder of the commercial brand "CafféTotò"). On 8 December 2011, after a long illness, her daughter Diana died. Diana's ashes were interred in the cemetery of Santa Maria del Pianto, the same place her grandfather is buried. On 21 September 2013, de Curtis attended the

feast of San Gennaro The Feast of San Gennaro (in Italian: ''Festa di San Gennaro''), also known as San Gennaro Festival, is a Neapolitan and Italian-American patronal festival dedicated to Saint Januarius, patron saint of Naples and Little Italy, New York. His feas ...

organized in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, where she received a lifetime achievement award. De Curtis died in her home in Rome on 3 June 2022, at the age of 89.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Curtis, Liliana 1933 births 2022 deaths Actresses from Rome Writers from Rome Italian film actresses Italian stage actresses 20th-century Italian actresses 21st-century Italian actresses 20th-century Italian women writers 21st-century Italian women writers 20th-century Italian writers 21st-century Italian writers