Valentina Cortese: Movies & Box Office

Valentina Elena Cortese Rossi di Coenzo was born on New Year's Day in Milan, into a family of noble origins; her father, Napoleone Rossi di Coenzo, left shortly before her birth and she was raised by her mother Olga and later by her maternal grandparents in Turin. After a brief encounter with conductor Victor de Sabata, she abandoned high school to move to Rome, where she entered the National Academy of Dramatic Arts and graduated, launching a stage career that quickly caught the attention of Scalera Film. Her screen debut came in 1941 with a small part in L'orizzonte dipinto, and she soon gained prominence with roles in Roma Città Libera (1946) and the dual‑role performance of Fantine and Cosette in Les Misérables (1948). By the end of the 1940s her striking presence had secured her a place in both Italian and international productions, including the British musical The Glass Mountain (1949) and Jules Dassin’s noir classic Thieves' Highway (1949). Valentina’s early career was marked by collaborations with leading directors such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, and Franco Zeffirelli, and she earned a Nastro d'Argento for her supporting role in Antonioni’s Le Amiche (1955).

In the following decades Cortese’s reputation blossomed on the world stage; her performance as Séverine in François Truffaut’s Day for Night (1973) won her the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress and brought an Academy Award nomination, while she also collected the National Society of Film Critics Award and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for the same role. She worked with a roster of cinematic masters—including Joseph Mankiewicz, Robert Aldrich, and Terry Gilliam—and remained a stalwart of the Italian theatre, frequently appearing with Giorgio Strehler’s company. Her personal life intertwined with her art: she married co‑star Richard Basehart in 1951, bore their son Jackie, and later wed industrialist Carlo de Angeli in 1980. Valentina Cortese retired from film after Zeffirelli’s Sparrow (1993), leaving a legacy celebrated by critics as one of the last divas of Italian theatre, a blend of floral liberty and neurotic modern sensibility that continues to inspire actors worldwide.