Marisa Pavan, actress nominated for an Oscar for ‘The Rose Tattoo’, dies at 91

Marisa Pavan, the Italian actress and twin sister of Pier Angeli who received an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Anna Magnani’s seamstress daughter in the 1955 drama. The rose tattoo, has died. She was 91 years old.

Pavan died on Wednesday in his sleep at his home in Gassin, France, near Saint-Tropez, Margaux Soumoy, who wrote Pavan’s 2021 biography. Leave the baby; Put a veil across!said The Hollywood Reporter.

Pavan also played the French queen Catherine de’ Medici in diane (1956), starring Lana Turner; an Italian girl who had an affair years ago with a corporate executive (Gregory Peck) in The man in the gray flannel suit (1956); and the love interest of an ex-cop (Tony Curtis) investigating the film noir murder of a priest. The Midnight Story (1957).

At Paramount The rose tattoo (1955), an adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play that won four Tony Awards, including Best Play, Pavan was memorable as the headstrong Rosa Delle Rose opposite Magnani, Burt Lancaster, Jo Van Fleet and Ben Cooper. Williams adapted the script with Hal Kanter.

The film, directed by Daniel Mann and shot in Florida by James Wong Howe, was nominated for eight Oscars, including best picture, and won three. Pavan lost on Oscar night to Van Fleet, who did not win because The rose tattoo but for east of eden – but she reached the podium at the Pantages, collecting the best actress trophy from her compatriot Magnani.

Maria Luisa Pierangeli and her sister (birth name Anna Maria Pierangeli, who was a few minutes older) were born on June 19, 1932 in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. Her father, Luigi, was an architect and construction engineer, and her mother, Enrica, was a housewife who once dreamed of being an actress.

“My mother adored Shirley Temple and took us to see all her movies,” Pavan said in Jane Allen’s 2002 book, Pier Angeli: a fragile life. “She even dressed us up like Shirley Temple, hence the big bows in our hair.”

The family moved to Rome in the mid-1930s and was threatened when the Nazis occupied the city.

When she was 16, Anna was walking along the Via Veneto on her way home from art school when she was discovered by Vittorio De Sica, and opposite him she played a teenager on the verge of a sexual awakening in Tomorrow is too late (1950). That caught the attention of MGM, who cast her in Teresa (1951), signed him a seven-year contract and gave him the stage name Pier Angeli.

Angeli and her sister then moved to Los Angeles and Maria, with no acting experience, was hired by Fox. Newly christened Marisa Pavan, she made her big screen debut as a French girl in John Ford’s film set in the First World War. What price does glory have? (1952), starring James Cagney and Dan Dailey.

Pavan then appeared in 1954 in film noir. Through three dark streets and in the west drum beatstarring Broderick Crawford and Alan Ladd, respectively, before breaking out into The rose tattoo.

Pavan also co-starred in a pair of epic adventures released in 1959, playing Robert Stack’s love interest in John Farrow’s film. Juan Pablo Jones (1959) and the servant Abisag in King Vidor’s Solomon and Sheba (1959). In the latter he worked alongside Yul Brynner, who joined the film in Spain after the sudden death of Tyrone Power.

Pavan worked primarily in television after that, with stints on shows like The United States Steel Hour, naked city, 77 Sunset Strip, Combat!, The FBI, Wonder Woman, Hawaii Five-O and The Rockford Files.

In 1976, she appeared as Kirk Douglas’ mentally ill wife in the Arthur Hailey NBC miniseries. The money changersand played Chantal Dubujak, mother of crime lord Max DuBujak (Daniel Pilon), in the 1985 ABC soap opera. Ryan’s hope.

Angeli, who dated James Dean before marrying singer Vic Damone and played the wife of boxing champion Rocky Marciano (played by Paul Newman) in 1956. Someone up there likes me He died in 1971 at age 39 from a barbiturate overdose in a Beverly Hills apartment. It was never firmly established whether he committed suicide or suffered a reaction to a prescription drug.

Pavan was married to French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont (her co-star in Juan Pablo Jones) from 1956 until his death in 2001. He is survived by his sons, Jean-Claude and Patrick, and his younger sister, Patrizia Pierangeli, also an actress.