Luisa Ferida

Luisa Ferida, real surname Manfrini, (18 March 1914 – 30 April 1945) was an Italian stage and film actress. She was one of divas in Italian cinema during decade 1935-1945 and she was the highest paid movie star of that period. The actress was famous as a films diva and she is remembered for her tragic death; in fact during the period of anti-fascist vendettas, immediately after Italian Civil War, she was assassinated, as was later proved by the Milan Court of Appeal, by shooting following a summary trial carried out by some criminal partisans: she was shot with her lover, the actor and member of Decima Flottiglia MAS Osvaldo Valenti, as accused of alleged and hypothetical participation in war crimes and torture in connection with so-called Koch gang, facts of which she was then deemed innocent after the war. Therefore a war pension was allocated to the mother, who had no other source of income.

Career

Born Luisa Manfrini Farnet in Castel San Pietro Terme, near Bologna, Ferida started as a stage actress. In 1935 she made her first appearance in film with a supporting role in ''La Freccia d'oro''. Because of her photogenic looks and talent as an actress, she soon graduated to leading roles by the end of the 1930s.

In 1939, while working on ''Un Avventura di Salvator Rosa'' (1940), directed by Alessandro Blasetti, she met the actor Osvaldo Valenti. The pair became romantically involved and had a son.

Death by criminal partisans

Valenti had been linked with many Fascist officials and personalities for years and he eventually joined the Italian Social Republic, and for this reasons he was on the partisans' hit list. He was finally arrested in Milan, alongside a pregnant Ferida in April 1945. They were both sentenced to be executed and shot immediately in the street, without any proper trial. The partisan chief who organized the execution, Giuseppe "Vero" Marozin, during trial by Milano's tribunal, defended himself declaring that the partisan leader who by telephone ordered the two actors to be executed was Sandro Pertini, who during the year 1978 became president of the Italian republic: this version is confirmed by enciclopedia Treccani. Few sources affirm the crime is attributed solely to Marozin.

Cultural references

The film '' Sanguepazzo'' starring Luca Zingaretti and Monica Bellucci discusses Luisa Ferida's relationship with Osvaldo Valenti. The film premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

Partial filmography

* '' Golden Arrow'' (1935) - Evelyn - figlia di Sleiden
* ''The Joker King'' (1936) - Trottola
* ''The Amnesiac'' (1936) - Giulietta
* '' The Two Sergeants'' (1936) - Lauretta Fracassa
* '' The Ambassador'' (1936)
* ''Il grande silenzio'' (1936) - La figlia dell'ucciso
* ''White Amazons'' (1936)
* ''The Castiglioni Brothers'' (1937) - Nina Castiglioni
* ''Tomb of the Angels'' (1937) - Luisa
* '' The Three Wishes'' (1937) - Maria Lauri
* ''I due barbieri'' (1937)
* ''The Count of Brechard'' (1938) - Maria
* '' All of Life in One Night'' (1938) - Maria
* ''L'argine'' (1938) - Sina
* ''Il suo destino'' (1938) - Maria, la ballerina
* '' Star of the Sea'' (1938) - Luisa
* ''Mad Animals'' (1939) - Maria Luisa
* ''An Adventure of Salvator Rosa'' (1939) - Lucrezia
* ''Il segreto di Villa Paradiso'' (1940) - Mary, la cantante
* ''La fanciulla di Portici'' (1940) - Lucia
* ''The Iron Crown'' (1941) - Kavaora, madre di Tundra & Tundra
* ''Blood Wedding'' (1941) - Nazaria
* ''Amore imperiale'' (1941) - La principessa Elisabetta di Russia
* '' The Jester's Supper'' (1942) - Fiammetta
* ''Headlights in the Fog'' (1942) - Piera
* ''L'ultimo addio'' (1942) - Irene Serra
* ''Sleeping Beauty'' (1942) - Carmela
* ''Orizzonte di sangue'' (1942) - Daria
* '' Fedora'' (1942) - Fedora
* ''Jealousy'' (1942) - Agrippina Solmo
* '' Knights of the Desert'' (1942) - Ara
* '' The Son of the Red Corsair'' (1943) - Carmen
* ''Sad Loves'' (1943)
* ''Tristi amori'' (1943) - Emma Scarli
* ''Grazia'' (1943)
* ''The Innkeeper'' (1944) - Mirandolina
* ''Fatto di cronaca'' (1945) - (final film role)

References

External links

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1914 births
1945 deaths
People from Castel San Pietro Terme
People executed by Italy by firing squad
Executed Italian women
Italian film actresses
Italian stage actresses
20th-century Italian actresses
Deaths by firearm in Italy

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