<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Cardinale began her movie-career at the age of 17 after winning a beauty contest in Tunisia, where she was born of Sicilian parents who had emigrated to North Africa. The contest brought her to the Venice Film Festival, where she came to the attention of the Italian movie industry.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Actress Claudia Cardinale appears in 1965. (AP Photo, File)<\/p>\n Actress Claudia Cardinale appears in 1965. (AP Photo, File)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n Before entering the beauty contest she had expected to become a school teacher.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fact I\u2019m making movies is just an accident,\u201d Cardinale recalled while accepting a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002. \u201cWhen they asked me \u2018do you want to be in the movies?\u2019 I said no and they insisted for six months.\u201d<\/p>\n Her success came in the wake of Sophia Loren\u2019s international stardom and she was touted as Italy\u2019s answer to Brigitte Bardot. While never achieving the level of success of the French actor, she nonetheless was considered a star and worked with the leading directors in Europe and Hollywood.<\/p>\n \u201cThey gave me everything,\u201d Cardinale said. \u201cIt\u2019s marvelous to live so many lives. I\u2019ve been living more than 150 lives, totally different women.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Italian actress Claudia Cardinale stands in front of a picture of herself as she appears in the film \u201cThe Leopard\u201d in Rome, Feb. 23, 1963. (AP Photo\/Giulio Broglio, File)<\/p>\n Italian actress Claudia Cardinale stands in front of a picture of herself as she appears in the film \u201cThe Leopard\u201d in Rome, Feb. 23, 1963. (AP Photo\/Giulio Broglio, File)<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n One of her earliest roles was as a black-clad Sicilian girl in the 1958 comedy classic \u201cBig Deal on Madonna Street.\u201d It was produced by Franco Cristaldi, who managed her early career and to whom she was married from 1966 to 1975.<\/p>\n The sensuous brunette with enormous eyes was often cast as a hot-blooded woman. As she had a deep voice and spoke Italian with a heavy French accent, her voice was dubbed in her early movies.<\/p>\n Her career in Hollywood brought only partial success because she was not interested in giving up European film. Nonetheless, she achieved some fame by teaming with Rock Hudson in the 1965 comedy thriller \u201cBlindfold\u201d and another comedy \u201cDon\u2019t Make Waves\u201d with Tony Curtis two years later.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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