Adriana Asti

Adriana Asti is a film and television actress best known for her work in the 1960s and 1970s with directors like Bernardo Bertolucci and Luchino Visconti. She enjoyed a successful theater career during the 1950s, appearing in plays like "St. Joan" and "Happy Days" before making her film debut in 1958 with a small role in the romantic drama "Citta di notte." She followed that film with roles in "Accattone!" and "Disorder" while also providing dubbed voiceovers for films such as "Girl with a Suitcase" and "The Hours of Love." In 1964 she landed her biggest role yet, in Bernardo Bertolucci's "Before the Revolution," as an Italian Communist's bourgeois object of affection. Asti and Bertolucci married soon after the film was released. Asti worked with many legendary directors in the '70s, including Spanish surrealist Luis Bunuel and Italian neo-realists Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica. After appearing in Visconti's epic royal drama "Ludwig," Asti landed a breakout role in De Sica's "A Brief Vacation" as a terminally ill woman. Asti, who divorced Bertolucci during the '70s, married director Giorgio Ferrara and has appeared in many of his films, including "A Simple Heart" and "Tosca and the Women." She has since appeared in numerous TV miniseries and films, including the 2003 award-winning family drama "The Best of Youth."