A volatile, commanding star of post-war Italian cinema, Anna Magnani was once described by director William Dieterle as "the last of the great shameless emotionalists". She gained international attention for her impassioned performance in Roberto Rossellini's "Open City" (1945). Though her early career had encompassed repertory work, musical comedy and vaudeville, Magnani subsequently tended to appear in tempestuous, earthy and maternal roles, such as the overbearing stage mother in Visconti's "Bellismima" (1951) and the passionate widow in her Oscar-winning Hollywood turn in "The Rose Tattoo" (1955), written by Tennessee Williams with her in mind.
Wild-eyed, with a dumpy, matronly figure, and a disheveled appearance, Magnani nonetheless became a symbol of seething, earthy, mature sexuality in the postwar years and throughout the 1950s. She was outstanding as the commedia dell'arte actress in Jean Renoir's "The Golden Coach" (1952) and her performance as a deranged peasant who believes herself impregnated by St. Joseph in Rossellini's "L'Amore" (1948) was condemned by American censors as blasphemous. Magnani's last really important performance in film came with her galvanizing work in the title role of Pier Paolo Pasolini's powerful "Mamma Roma" (1962), though she was quite pleasingly robust and lusty in the enjoyable comedy "The Secret of Santa Vittoria" (1969). Her last screen role was a cameo in Fellini's "Roma" (1972).
Family
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Father: Francesco Magnani. Egyptian
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Mother: Marina Casadei. Italian
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Son: Luca Alessandrini. born in 1942; father, Massimo Serrato; later stricken with polio
Significant Others
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Companion: Massimo Serrato. father of Magnani s son Luca
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Companion: Roberto Rossellini. relationship ended c. 1949 when Rossellini became involved with Ingrid Bergman
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Companion: Walter Chiari.
Education
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Accademia d Arte Drammatica, Rome, Italy
Milestones
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1927 Film debut in bit part in silent film, Scampolo
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1927 Toured Argentina
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1934 Film acting debut in La Cieca di Sorrento/The Blind Women of Sorrento
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1935 Came to attention of film director Goffredo Alessandrini who cast her in a small part in Cavalleria (1936)
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1936 After marriage to Alessandrini, retired from stage and screen (except for La principessa Tarakanova 1938) because he felt her unsuitable as a screen actress; returned to stage in melodramatic roles
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1941 Appeared in first important film, Teresa Venerdi/Friday Theresa (directed by Vittorio de Sica)
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1950 Il Miracolo/The Miracle segment of the 1947 film L Amore/Love was banned by the Commissioner of Licenses as blasphemous when it opened in New York in December
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1955 Made first Hollywood film, The Rose Tattoo
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1965 Returned to Italian stage in La Lupa/She-Wolf under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli
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1966 Appeared on stage as Medea in Jean Anouilh s play, directed by Gian Carlo Menotti
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1969 Final film performance in The Secret of Santa Vittoria
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1972 Final film appearance in a cameo in Fellini s Roma
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Appeared in racy revues for servicemen during the American occupation of Rome after WWII
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Brought up in poverty by her maternal grandparents after her Egyptian father disappeared and her unmarried Italian mother departed for Egypt
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Worked in nightclubs where she sang street songs in a torchy contralto; also appeared in variety revues and by 1926 in experimental plays