RIP Claudine Cardinale

[Astronuc]

Claudia Cardinale, Italian Movie Star Who Appeared in ‘Pink Panther,’ ‘8 1/2,’ Dies at 87​

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/claudia-cardinale-dead-pink-panther-leopard-1236527489/

Claudia Cardinale, the sexy Italian movie star who appeared in classic Italian films including Fellini’s “8½” and Visconti’s “Rocco and His Brothers” and “The Leopard,” Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western “Once Upon a Time in the West,” as well as “The Pink Panther,” has died. She was 87.

Her agent told AFP that she died in Nemours, near Paris. “She leaves us the legacy of a free and inspired woman both as a woman and as an artiste,” Laurent Savry said in a statement.

In Blake Edwards’ 1963 caper comedy classic “The Pink Panther,” she starred as the Princess Dahla, who owns the jewel of the title that the thief known as the Phantom (David Niven) seeks to steal. (The actress returned to the franchise after Peter Sellers’ death for a role in 1993’s “Son of the Pink Panther,” starring Roberto Benigni.)

Cardinale did not have a lot to do in Richard Brooks’ 1966 Western “The Professionals,” but the plot did turn on her character: She played the wife of a wealthy man (Ralph Bellamy) who’s kidnapped by a Mexican bandit; the professionals of the title, played by Burt Lancaster and Lee Marvin, are hired to retrieve her. The film was Oscar nominated for director, screenplay and cinematography.

I remember her from the Pink Panther movie with Peter Sellers and David Niven.