Marisa Pavan (1932-2023)

Italian-born actress Marisa Pavan (1932) passed away on 6 December 2023. She first became famous as the twin sister to film star Pier Angeli before achieving film stardom on her own. The docile actress became known for her gentle, understated roles. She won the Golden Globe and was Oscar-nominated for her supporting turn in The Rose Tattoo (1955). Marisa Pavan was the wife of French film star Jean-Pierre Aumont.


Belgian postcard, no. 51.


French postcard by Editions du Globe (E.D.U.G.), no. 532. Photo: International Press / Paramount.

Twin sister

Marisa Pavan was born Marisa Pierangeli in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, in 1932. Her twin sister was Anna Maria Pierangeli, who later became film star Pier Angeli. They were fraternal twins with different personalities as well. Anna Maria was dreamy and innocent; Maria Luisa was independent and studious. They were the children of Enrichetta (née Romiti) and Luigi Pierangeli, a construction engineer. The two girls also had a younger sister, Patrizia Pierangeli, who became an actress as well.

They moved to Rome in the late 1940s. In 1948 their lives changed when director Vittorio De Sica cast Anna in Domani è troppo tardi/Tomorrow Is Too Late (Léonide Moguy, 1950). In 1950 the family moved to Hollywood, where Anna Maria changed her name to Pier Angeli. Marisa studied briefly at Torquado Tasso College and made her first film appearance in an Italian satire of the Cold War, Ho Scelto L'Amore/I Chose Love (Mario Zampi, 1952), before coming with her family to the United States.

Marisa had no dramatic training and was not really interested in acting when she signed a Hollywood contract with Paramount at age 19. She made her American debut playing a sweet village girl in What Price Glory? (John Ford, 1952), 20th Century Fox's remake of the 1926 classic. She changed her last name to Pavan, the name of a Jewish officer her family had hidden from the Nazis during World War 2. 

She then impressed as a blind witness to a murder in the Film Noir Down Three Dark Streets (Arnold Laven, 1953) opposite Broderick Crawford. She then appeared opposite Alan Ladd in the Western Drum Beat (Delmer Daves, 1954).

Her breakthrough came in the film The Rose Tattoo (Daniel Mann, 1955) as Anna Magnani's teen-age daughter. Her role was first assigned to her twin, who at the time was unable to play the part. When Magnani won the Oscar for Best Actress, Pavan accepted on her behalf as Magnani was not present at the awards ceremony. Pavan was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, losing to Jo Van Fleet for East of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955). Both Magnani and Pavan won Golden Globe awards that year.


Italian postcard by Vetta Traldi, Milano, in the 'Divi del Cinema' series, no. 41.


Pier Angeli. Dutch postcard by Takken, Utrecht, no. 1182. Photo: MGM.

Jean-Pierre Aumont

Marisa Pavan co-starred in several more Hollywood films, usually in gentle roles. She played the Native American childhood sweetheart of Alan Ladd in Drum Beat (Delmer Daves, 1954).

Pavan appeared as the scheming Catherine de Medici in the opulent costume drama Diane (David Miller, 1955) starring Lana Turner, and she had an illegitimate child with Gregory Peck in The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit (Nunnally Johnson, 1956).

In 1956, she married, later divorced, and then again remarried the French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont.

In the following years she appeared opposite Tony Curtis in the Film Noir The Midnight Story (Joseph Pevney, 1957) as the leading lady to Robert Stack in the sea-faring historical epic John Paul Jones (John Farrow, 1959), and Abishag in the Biblical film adaptation Solomon and Sheba (King Vidor, 1959).

Her Hollywood days ended with the dawn of the 1960s. With her husband, she sang in a supper club act that toured the United States, Canada and Mexico. She acted in several American TV productions, including The Diary of Anne Frank (Alex Segal, 1967) with Max von Sydow, Cutter's Trail (Vincent McEveety, 1970) with John Saxon, The Moneychangers (Boris Sagal, 1976) starring Kirk Douglas, and The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald (Gordon Davidson, David Greene, 1977).


Dutch postcard by Uitg. Takken, Utrecht, no. 3144. Photo: Universal Int. Marisa Pavan and Tony Curtis in The Midnight Story (Joseph Pevney, 1957).


Dutch postcard, no. 2037.

Hit record

Marisa Pavan returned to Europe and appeared in the French films L’Evenement Le Plus Important Depuis Que L’homme A Marche Sur La Lune/A Slightly Pregnant Man (Jacques Demy, 1973) starring Marcello Mastroianni, and the romance Antoine et Sebastien (Jean-Marie Perier, 1974) with Jacques Dutronc.

She had a hit record in 1974 with a French-language version of Burt Bacharach's 'Green Grass Starts to Grow'. Later she guest-starred in episodes of popular American TV series like The Rockford Files (1979), Hawaii Five-O (1977), McMillan & Wife (1977) and Ryan's Hope (1985).

In 1983 she was interviewed for Stelle Emigranti/Wandering Stars (Francesco Bortolini, Claudio Masenza, 1983), a revealing documentary about eight Italian actresses, including Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale and Virna Lisi, who attained worldwide fame through films they made in Hollywood. Most of the eight agree that performers are treated better in Hollywood than in Italy and that American efficiency and organisation impressed them - but that in Italy, they had more challenging roles than was allowed in the USA.

Pavan was the founder and director of URMA (Unis pour la Recherche sur la Maladie d'Alzheimer), an organisation she created to support research working to find treatments for Alzheimer's.

With Aumont, she appeared for the last time together in the French TV film Johnny Monroe (Renaud Saint-Pierre, 1987). After Jean-Pierre Aumont died in 2001, Pavan lived in Paris. They had two sons, Jean-Claude and Patrick. Marisa Pavan was also the stepmother of actress Tina Aumont. Pavan died at her home in Gassin, France on 6 December 2023, at the age of 91.


Italian postcard by B.F.F., Firenze, no. 3269. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.


French postcard by La Roue Tourne, Paris.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia and IMDb.