Anna Magnani (7 March 1908 – 26 September 1973) was an Italian stage and film actress. Magnani won the Oscar for her lusty portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo.
Born in Rome, she was raised by her maternal grandmother and grew up stricken by poverty in a slum district of the city. After some education at a convent school, she enrolled at Rome's Academy of Dramatic Art. To support herself, Magnani sang in nightclubs and cabarets leadin...
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Anna Magnani (7 March 1908 – 26 September 1973) was an Italian stage and film actress. Magnani won the Oscar for her lusty portrayal of a Sicilian widow in The Rose Tattoo.
Born in Rome, she was raised by her maternal grandmother and grew up stricken by poverty in a slum district of the city. After some education at a convent school, she enrolled at Rome's Academy of Dramatic Art. To support herself, Magnani sang in nightclubs and cabarets leading to her being dubbed "the Italian Édith Piaf".
In 1927 she acted in the screen version of La Nemica e Scampolo. She had also been in the stage production. She met Italian filmmaker Goffredo Alessandrini in 1933 and the couple married in 1935. He was one of the first Italian filmmakers to make use of sound. Her marriage to Alessandrini ended in 1950; she never remarried. Magnani once said: "Women like me can only submit to men capable of dominating them, and I have never found anyone capable of dominating me."
Later, she had a relationship...
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