Princess Niké Arrighi Borghese (born Marcella Arrighi; 9 March 1944 – 12 February 2025), known professionally as Niké Arrighi, was a French

visual artist The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

and actress, known for roles in several European horror and art house films in the 1960s and 1970s in addition to work in television.

Early life

Daughter of Italian diplomat and former journalist Count Ernesto Arrighi and Australian prima ballerina and model Eleanora ("Nellie") Douglas Cox, daughter of grazier Douglas Cox, Arrighi was raised in the

Vaucluse Vaucluse (; or ) is a department in the southeastern French region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It had a population of 561,469 as of 2019.

neighborhood of Sydney, Australia. Her family moved there because her father was the Italian consul. He died when she was young.

Career

Arrighi began her professional career as a fashion model in Paris, then moved to London, where she studied acting at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, also known by its abbreviation RADA (), is a drama school in London, England, which provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in Bloomsbury, Central London ...

. In 1967 she played the parts of Corinne in ''

The Champions ''The Champions'' is a British espionage thriller/science fiction/occult detective fiction adventure television series. It was produced by Lew Grade's ITC Entertainment production company, and consists of 30 episodes broadcast in the UK on ...

'' ('Reply Box No.66') and a gypsy girl in ''

The Prisoner ''The Prisoner'' is a British television series created by Patrick McGoohan. McGoohan portrays Number Six (The Prisoner), Number Six, an unnamed British intelligence agent who is abducted and imprisoned in a The Village (The Prisoner), mysteri ...

'' ('Many Happy Returns'). After a ten-year career in film and television she retired in the early 1970s to return to art, which she had studied as a young woman. Specializing in copperplate etching and oil painting, she won First Prize for Graphic Art at the 1976 Hong Kong Art Biennial.

Personal life and death

In 1977 she married Prince Paolo

Borghese The House of Borghese ( , ) is a family of Italian noble and papal background, originating as the Borghese or Borghesi in Siena, where they came to prominence in the 13th century and held offices under the '' commune''. During the 16th century, t ...

, eldest son of the famed

Junio Valerio Borghese Junio Valerio Scipione Ghezzo Marcantonio Maria Borghese (6 June 1906 – 26 August 1974), nicknamed The Black Prince, was an Italian Navy commander during the regime of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party and a prominent hardline neo-fa ...

. They lived in Hong Kong, where he was an engineer, before moving in 1984 to Italy, where she still resided at Palazzo Borghese in Artena until her death. Her husband died in 1999. They had a daughter, Flavia. Arrighi died on 12 February 2025 in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, at the age of 80. Her sister is Luciana Arrighi.

Filmography

References

External links

* * 1944 births 2025 deaths French film actresses French television actresses French etchers 20th-century etchers Artists from Nice Actresses from Nice, France French women printmakers 20th-century French printmakers 21st-century French printmakers 21st-century French women artists Women etchers French expatriates in Hong Kong French people of Australian descent {{France-film-actor-1940s-stub