Pupella Maggio

Part of a Neapolitan theatrical family, Pupella Maggio established herself as a stage great before immortalizing herself in a number of classics of Italian cinema. The daughter of two actors, Maggio was born in her mother's dressing and literally grew up on stage: at age two, she played a rag doll in a play, and from then on was known as "Pupella," meaning little doll. Like six of her siblings, Maggio chose acting as her career and, following the Second World War, established a longstanding onstage collaboration with acclaimed playwright Eduardo De Filippo. Though she appeared in her first film, "Bullet for Stefano" starring Rossano Brazzi, in 1947, it wasn't until the 1960s that she transitioned to a career on celluloid. She showed her talent initially in two World War II dramas, Vittorio De Sica's 1960 "Two Women," with Sophia Loren, and the 1962 Oscar-nominated "The Four Days of Naples," and even got the attention of Hollywood, playing Noah's wife in John Huston's 1966 star-studded religious epic, "The Bible: In the Beginning." Arguably her greatest movie role came in 1973, when she played Miranda Biondi, the hero's mother, in Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning dramedy "Amarcord." Fifteen years later, she had a major role in yet another Oscar winner, Giuseppe Tornatore's nostalgic "Cinema Paradiso," in which she played the protagonist's love interest in later life. She died of a brain hemorrhage in Rome in 1999, two years after publishing her autobiography.