Lydia Alfonsi (28 April 1928 – 21 September 2022) was an Italian actress.

Life and career

Born Lidia Alfonsi in

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

into a wealthy middle-class family, Alfonsi interrupted her accounting studies at a young age to pursue a career in theater. In 1946 she won in a national competition for amateur dramatics and was noticed by one of the judges, the director

Anton Giulio Bragaglia __NOTOC__ Anton Giulio Bragaglia (11 February 1890 – 15 July 1960) was a pioneer in Italian Futurist Futurists (also known as futurologists, prospectivists, foresight practitioners and horizon scanners) are people whose specialty ...

, who immediately hired her for his stage company. Soon she was cast in leading roles in dramas and often in classical works, including many Greek tragedies. In 1957 she made her film debut. In 1960 she began a professional and romantic relationship with television director Giacomo Vaccari, starring in several successful

RAI RAI – Radiotelevisione italiana (; commercially styled as Rai since 2000; known until 1954 as Radio Audizioni Italiane) is the national public broadcasting company of Italy, owned by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. RAI operates many ter ...

TV-dramas directed by him. Their relationship ended with his death in a car accident in 1963. In the mid-1970s Alfonsi semi-retired, making sporadic appearances only in 1988 (with the TV movie ''Una lepre con la faccia da bambina''), in 1990 (in

Gianni Amelio Gianni Amelio (born 20 January 1945) is an Italian film director. Early life Amelio was born in San Pietro di Magisano, province of Catanzaro, Calabria. His father moved to Argentina soon after his birth. He spent his youth and adolescence with ...

's ''Open Doors'') and in 1997 (in

Roberto Benigni Roberto Remigio Benigni (; born 27 October 1952) is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director. He gained international recognition for writing, directing and starring in the Holocaust comedy-drama film ''Life Is Beautiful'' (1997), f ...

's ''

Life Is Beautiful ''Life Is Beautiful'' ( it, La vita è bella, ) is a 1997 Italian comedy drama film directed by and starring Roberto Benigni, who co-wrote the film with Vincenzo Cerami. Benigni plays Guido Orefice, a Jewish Italian bookshop owner, who employ ...

''). Alfonsi was appointed

Grand Officer of the Italian Republic The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic ( it, Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana) is the senior Italian order of merit. It was established in 1951 by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi. The highest-ranking h ...

. Alfonsi died on 21 September 2022, at the age of 94.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alfonsi, Lydia 1928 births 2022 deaths Actors from Parma Italian stage actresses Italian film actresses 20th-century Italian actresses Italian television actresses Italian voice actresses Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico alumni Grand Officers of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic