Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini (born 18 June 1952) is an Italian actress and model.

The daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman and Italian film director Roberto Rossellini, she is noted for her successful tenure as a Lancôme model and an established career in American cinema.

Rossellini made her film debut with a brief appearance as a nun opposite her mother in the 1976 film A Matter of Time.

However, she decided not to stay full-time in New York until her marriage to Martin Scorsese (1979–1982), whom she met when she interviewed him for RAI.

At the age of 28, her modeling career began, when she was photographed by Bruce Weber for British Vogue and by Bill King for American Vogue.

During her career, she has also worked with many other renowned photographers, including Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Norman Parkinson, Eve Arnold, Francesco Scavullo, Annie Leibovitz, Denis Piel, and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Her image has appeared on such magazines as Marie Claire, Harper's Bazaar, Vanity Fair, and Elle.

Her first role was the 1979 film Il Prato, and then in 1980 she appeared in Renzo Arbore's film Il pap'occhio with Martin Scorsese.

Rossellini's modeling career led her into the world of cosmetics, when she became the exclusive spokesmodel for the French cosmetics brand Lancôme in 1982, replacing Nancy Dutiel in the United States and Carol Alt in Europe.

Following her mother's death in 1982, Rossellini was cast in her first American film, White Nights (1985).

This was followed by her notable role as the tortured nightclub singer Dorothy Vallens in the David Lynch film Blue Velvet, in which she also contributed her own singing.

She gained recognition as an actress after her breakthrough role in White Nights (1985) and again in David Lynch's Blue Velvet (1986) for which she received the Independent Spirit Award for Best Female Lead.

In March 1988, an exhibition dedicated to photographs of her, called Portrait of a Woman, was held at the Musee d'Art Moderne in Paris.

Other notable films include Cousins (1989), Wild at Heart (1990), Death Becomes Her (1992), Fearless (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), Big Night (1996), Roger Dodger (2002), Infamous (2006), Two Lovers (2008), Enemy (2013), Joy (2015), and La chimera (2023).

Other significant film roles during this period include her work in Cousins (1989), Death Becomes Her (1992), Fearless (1993), and Immortal Beloved (1994).

At Lancôme, in 1990, she was involved in product development for the fragrance Trésor.

In October 1992, Rossellini modelled for Madonna's controversial book Sex.

Rossellini also appeared in Madonna's music video for her successful Top 5 hit song "Erotica", released in autumn 1992.

Rossellini received a Golden Globe Award nomination for the HBO film Crime of the Century (1996).

In 1996, when she was 43, she was removed as the face of Lancôme for being "too old".

In 1996, she appeared as herself in an episode of the TV series Friends called "The One with Frank Jr."

She received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series nomination for Chicago Hope (1997).

She also has guest starred in the sitcoms Friends and 30 Rock as well as the dramas Alias and The Blacklist.

She portrayed Simone Beck in the HBO series Julia (2022).

Rossellini was born in Rome, the daughter of Swedish actress Ingrid Bergman, who was of Swedish and German descent, and Italian director Roberto Rossellini, who was born in Rome from a family originally from Pisa, Tuscany.

She has three siblings from her mother: her fraternal twin sister Isotta Rossellini, who is an adjunct professor of Italian literature; a brother, Robertino Ingmar Rossellini; and a half-sister, Pia Lindström, who formerly worked on television and is from her mother's first marriage with Petter Lindström.

She has four other siblings from her father's two other marriages: Romano (who died at age nine), Renzo, Gil, and Raffaella.

Growing up, she received "a liberal Catholic education".

Rossellini was raised in Rome, as well as in Santa Marinella and Paris.

She underwent an operation for appendicitis at the age of five.

At 11, she was diagnosed with scoliosis.

In order to correct it, she had to undergo an 18-month ordeal of painful stretchings, body casts and surgery on her spine using pieces of one of her shin bones.

Consequently, she has incision scars on her back and shin.

At 19, she went to New York City, where she attended Finch College, while working as a translator and as a television reporter for RAI.

She also appeared intermittently on L'altra Domenica (The Other Sunday), a TV show featuring Roberto Benigni.

In 2003, Rossellini was a recurring character on the television series Alias.

Rossellini was the inaugural brand ambassador for the Italian Silversea Cruises company in 2004, and she appeared in print ads and on their website.

Barbara Muckermann, the senior vice-president of worldwide marketing and communications in 2004, said at the time of the announcement, "Isabella is the ideal personification of Silversea's exclusive standard of elegance, glamour and sophistication."

In 2016, at the age of 63, she was rehired by Lancôme's new female CEO, Francoise Lehmann, as a global brand ambassador for the company.

She is also known for her voice roles in Incredibles 2 (2018), and Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (2021), and her role as General Malice in Human Resources (2023).