French-Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, a leading figure of European cinema in the 1960s, died on Tuesday, September 23, 2025 at the age of 87 in Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, where she lived. She made her name in Le Guépard, Huit et demi and Il était une fois dans l'Ouest, and worked with some of the greatest directors of the 20th century, from Luchino Visconti to Federico Fellini and Sergio Leone. Her death was announced by her agent Laurent Savry toAFP, but no cause of death was given.
Claudia Cardinale, born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardinale in La Goulette, near Tunis, on April 15, 1938, came from a Sicilian family settled in North Africa. Voted"most beautiful Italian woman in Tunis" at the age of 17, she entered the world of cinema almost by accident, having been spotted at the Venice Mostra. Her career really began in the late 1950s under the direction of Italian directors, and continued in the 1960s with works that have become emblematic of European cinema. She gained international recognition for her role asAngelica in Le Guépard (1963), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival, and as Jill in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
Despite her husky voice and atypical accent for Italian cinema, she managed to make her mark in a very male-dominated world. Her career was marked by over a hundred films, shot in Italy, France, Hollywood and even Germany. She worked with Henri Verneuil, Blake Edwards, Richard Brooks and Werner Herzog. She always refused to be reduced to the image of "diva", preferring that of an independent, "indomitable" woman. At the same time, she was publicly committed to a number of social and humanitarian causes, including women's rights, the fight against AIDS and the death penalty.
Discreet about her private life, Claudia Cardinale was marked by personal trials, notably an unwanted pregnancy in her youth, which she had to conceal for a long time. A companion of director Pasquale Squitieri for almost thirty years, she shared a daughter and a dozen films with him. The recipient of numerous awards, including the Honorary Golden Lion at Venice (1993) and the Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement at Berlin (2002), she leaves behind a body of work that is firmly anchored in the history of Italian and European cinema.
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