Stefania Sandrelli

She was born in Viareggio (Tuscany, Italy) on June 5th, 1946. She won a beauty contest when she was just 15 years old, which led to her first role in "Il federale" together with the great Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi. She was then cast by Germi for the Italian comedy "Divorzio all'Italiana", working with Marcello Mastroianni, but she became well known a few years later performing in the movie "Sedotta e abbandonata".

At 16 she had a relationship with the Italian musician Gino Paoli and in 1964 she gave birth to her first daughter Amanda. In the 70s she worked with directors Bernardo Bertolucci, Ettore Scola, Comencini and acted with Vittorio Gassman, Dustin Hoffman (Alfredo, Alfredo), Robert De Niro and Gerard Depardieu (Novecento). In the 80s she performed her sexiest role in "La chiave" by Tinto Brass, which made her an erotic icon for a whole generation of men, and participated in important Italian movies (for example Speriamo che sia femmina, with Catherine Deneuve and Liv Ullman). In the 90s she especially worked for tv series and became very popular as Gigi Proietti's fiancée in "Il Maresciallo Rocca". She worked a little less for the cinema industry, nevertheless she participated in Bertolucci's "Io ballo da sola" and in Muccino's "L'ultimo bacio", where she portrayed a woman in the deep of a midlife crises.

She was Luis Buñuel's first choice for the title role in Tristana (1970). The part was eventually played by Catherine Deneuve.

She has a son,Vito, born in 1973 with Italian entrepreneur Nicky Pende.

She's the longtime companion (since 1983) of director Giovanni Soldati.

She has a passion for wine and has been in a partnership with Distilleria Bottega since 1993 to produce her signature wine "Acino d'Oro, Chianti Classico DOCG" commercially.

Her grandchildren are: Rocco (b. 1998), Elena (b. 2001), Diletta (b. 2003) and Francisco (b. 2004).