Happy 80, Claudia Cardinale!

CC was born on 15 April 1938, today 80 years ago. At 20, she made her film debut in the French-Tunisian film Goha (Jacques Baratier, 1958). Five years later, Claudia Cardinale made three classics in one year: Luchino Visconti's epic Il Gattopardo/The Leopard (1963), Federico Fellini's Otto e Mezzo/8½ (1963), and the American comedy The Pink Panther (Blake Edwards, 1963). Last year, she was seen in three new feature films, a short film and a mini-series and a new project is announced. And in between she made so many other wonderful films for which we salute her!


German postcard by Filmbilder-Vertrieb Ernst Freihoff, Essen, no. H 72.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/164. Photo: Georg Michalke / UFA.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 183. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 229. Photo: Sam Lévin.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 230. Photo: Sam Lévin.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/47.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., nr. 243, offered by Les carbones Korès Carboplane. Photo: Sam Lévin.


German postcard by Krüger, no. 902/132. Photo: Sam Levin / Ufa.


German postcard by ISV, no. H 126. Sent by mail in 1967.


German postcard by Krüger / Ufa. Sent by mail in the Netherlands in 1967. Photo: Fried Agency.


French postcard by E.D.U.G., no. 316. Photo: Sam Lévin.

A quote from a 2011 interview with La Cardinale in The Guardian: "When I was young, I wanted to go everywhere and be everyone, and with this work, I have. The interesting thing for an actress is not to do what she wants to do, but to be somebody else. I was blonde, I was brunette, I was a princess, I was a whore. I was everything. You are not yourself in front of the camera. You can live many lives, instead of one. I think I've been lucky."

Tanti auguri, sig.a Cardinale.

Sources: Steve Rose (The Guardian) and IMDb.