Marisa Pavan

Maria Luisa Pierangeli and her twin sister Anna Maria were born in Sardinia, Italy. They were fraternal twins with different personalities as well. Anna Maria was dreamy and innocent; Maria Luisa was independent and studious. They moved to Rome in the late 1940s.

In 1948 their lives changed when director Vittorio De Sica cast Anna in Tomorrow Is Too Late (1950).

In 1950 the family moved to Hollywood, where Anna Maria changed her name to Pier Angeli.

Marisa was not interested in acting, but was cast by John Ford in What Price Glory (1952) starring James Cagney. She changed her last name to Pavan, the name of a Jewish officer her family had hidden from the Nazis during World War 2. Marisa signed a contract with Fox, but was relieved when it was broken. She wanted a wider choice of roles than her sister.

Pavan's performance in The Rose Tattoo (1955) supporting Italian icon Anna Magnani, earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

In 1956, she accepted the Oscar for "Best Actress in a Leading Role" on behalf of her The Rose Tattoo (1955) co-star Anna Magnani , who wasn't present at the awards ceremony.

She lost interest in Hollywood while filming Solomon and Sheba (1959). She remembered it as a bad experience, and not just because costar Tyrone Power died during the filming.

Pavan turned her attention to television in the 1960s. She and husband Jean-Pierre Aumont toured America and Europe in plays and musicals, including "Gigi". Later in France, she returned to film.

Has two sons, Jean-Claude Aumont and Patrick Aumont, by actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, from whom she was briefly divorced (1963-1969).

Had a hit record overseas in 1974 with a French-language version of Burt Bacharach's "Green Grass Starts to Grow" and sang with her husband, Jean-Pierre Aumont, in a supper club act that toured the United States, Canada and Mexico in the 60s.

As of 2020 she is the seventh earliest surviving recipient of a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, behind only Angela Lansbury, Ann Blyth, Nancy Olson, Lee Grant, Terry Moore (I), and Eva Marie Saint. She was nominated in 1955 for The Rose Tattoo (1955).