Laura Antonelli

Acting

Laura Antonelli

Born 1941-11-28 · Pola, Croatia

Laura Antonelli (née Antonaz; 28 November 1941 – 22 June 2015) was an Italian film actress, who appeared in 45 films between 1964 and 1991, and she is best known for the movie Malizia. Antonelli was born Laura Antonaz in Pola, Kingdom of Italy (in Croatian, Pula), former capital of Istria. After the war, her parents fled what was then Yugoslavia, lived in Italian refugee camps and eventually settled in Naples, where her father found work as a hospital administrator. Antonelli had a childhood interest in mathematics, but as a teenager, she became proficient at gymnastics. In an interview for The New York Times, she recalled, "My parents had made me take hours of gym classes during my teens ... They felt I was ugly, clumsy, insignificant and they hoped I would at least develop some grace. I became very good, especially in rhythmical gym, which is a kind of dance." Setting aside ambitions to make a career in mathematics, she graduated as a gymnastics instructor. She moved to Rome, where she became a secondary-school gym teacher and was able to meet people in the entertainment industry, who helped her find modelling jobs. Antonelli's earliest engagements included Italian advertisements for Coca-Cola. In 1965, she made her first feature-film appearance in Le sedicenni, although her performance went uncredited. Her American debut came in 1966 in Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs. Other roles followed; her breakthrough came in 1973's Malizia. She appeared in a number of sex farces such as Till Marriage Do Us Part/Mio Dio come sono caduta in basso!. She worked in more serious films, as well, including Luchino Visconti's last film, The Innocent (1976). In Wifemistress, a romance film of 1977, she played a repressed wife experiencing a sexual awakening. Later, she appeared in Passione d'Amore (1981). From 1986 she mostly worked on Italian television series. Antonelli's final film role was in the sequel Malizia 2000 (1991), following which she retired. She won the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Award, Nastro d'Argento, in 1974 for Malizia. Antonelli was married to publisher Enrico Piacentini but they divorced. From 1972 to 1980, she was the companion of actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. On 27 April 1991, cocaine was found during a police raid on Antonelli's home. She was subsequently convicted of possession and dealing and sentenced to house arrest. She spent ten years appealing the conviction, which was eventually overturned. In 2006, the Italian court of appeals ruled in favor of Antonelli and ordered the Ministry of Justice to pay the actress 108,000 euros. Antonelli died on 22 June 2015, aged 73, from a heart attack. Source: Article "Laura Antonelli" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Acting credits

Malicious poster
7.3

A widower and two of his sons become infatuated by their beautiful housekeeper, and all three set out to seduce her using their own unique methods.

Malicious

1973

Passion of Love poster
6.7

In 1860s Italy, Giorgio is a young soldier is sent to a remote post, far from his lover, Clara. Lodged with the colonel, he befriends the colonel and the local doctor. Among the inhabitants are a strange young woman, both unattractive and mad; however, she's got a passion that Giorgio will have to cope with.

Passion of Love

1981

The Trap poster
4.2

A woman becomes obsessed with a man she can't have, and carries the torch for more than 15 years.

The Trap

1985

Lovers and Other Relatives poster
5.6

Sandro dreams about a woman older than himself. He works as a lifeguard at the beach and at the same time he's caring for a large number of sexually unsatisfied women who are coming for the weekend without their husbands.

Lovers and Other Relatives

1974

Rimini Rimini poster
4.8

Funny, entertaining comedy with a few storylines. All of them have one thing in common - a resort town of Rimini in Italy.

Rimini Rimini

1987

The Innocent poster
6.8

Tullio Hermil is a chauvinist aristocrat who flaunts his mistress to his wife, but when he believes she has been unfaithful he becomes enamored of her again.

The Innocent

1976

The Eroticist poster
5.6

Senator Pupis feels a strong and uncontrollable urge to grab women's bottoms, a habit than can lead to embarrassment, especially if the woman in question is head of another state and the occasion a state visit. In his desperation Pupis turns to the clergy for spiritual and psychological help.

The Eroticist

1972

Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs poster
5.0

Mad scientist Dr. Goldfoot plots another twisted scheme to take over the world by killing off the major military leaders of every country; to that end, he creates in his secret lab a bevy of bodacious girl bombs; full-length, life-size robots that explode when embraced.

Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs

1966

The Venetian Woman poster
5.0

Venice, sixteenth century. Giulio, a foreign gentleman spends a memorable night in the city where he meets and beds two beautiful women. They are Angela, a widowed lady, and Valeria, whose husband has left for Florence.

The Venetian Woman

1986

Black Journal poster
5.5

A mother so insanely overprotective of her grown son decides to make a deal with death by offering alternate victims plucked from among her fellow tenants in a 1938 Italian apartment building.

Black Journal

1977

Malizia 2000 poster
5.7

The teenage son of an architect falls for an older woman, an attractive housewife of his father's client.

Malizia 2000

1991

The Divine Nymph poster
5.5

In the decadent Roaring Twenties, a beautiful woman engages in affairs with two men, playing them against each other.

The Divine Nymph

1975

Devil in the Flesh poster
4.7

Based on the infamous novel by Leopold Sacher-Masoch this fine film follows the perverted passions of a young couple as Severin watches the beautiful Wanda writhing naked amongst furs. His disturbing peeping tomism triggers off a whirlpool of emotions due to a childhood episode which punishes voyeurism with pain.

Devil in the Flesh

1969

Secret Fantasy poster
6.1

Niccolò Vivaldi is a cello player and he plays in Arena di Verona Orchestra. But he is not the first and neither the second cello. He is frustrated. Nobody can remember his face, nor his name. Niccolò is married to Costanza, who is really beautiful and he takes some pictures of her naked. Later he shows the pictures to a friend and so he feels better. He starts to write a comic opera called "Il merlo maschio" only to discover later he had written Rossini's "La gazza ladra". To maintain his self-esteem he can only show his wife...

Secret Fantasy

1971

How Funny Can Sex Be? poster
5.7

A nine-episode anthology film about love, sex, and marriage in contemporary, mid-'70s Italy.

How Funny Can Sex Be?

1973

The Married Couple of the Year Two poster
6.5

Nicolas Philibert goes to America after killing a French aristocrat. On his return he tries to divorce his wife, Charlotte, but when he sees others trying to woo her his own interest is rekindled.

The Married Couple of the Year Two

1971

Scoundrel in White poster
5.2

Paul, a former womanizer, marries the head of the medical department's "unattractive" daughter Christine because he thinks attractive women can't be trusted and make poor wives. A car accident leaves him bedridden and he begins to miss his playboy days, when Christine's bombshell sister Martine arrives and Paul decides he must have her. He begins drugging Christine at night so he can sneak out to kill of Martine's many suitors one by one.

Scoundrel in White

1972

Without Apparent Motive poster
5.9

A series of murders is committed in Nice on the French riviera. The commissaire Carella is in charge and tries to find a missing link between all these murders.

Without Apparent Motive

1971

Sesso e volentieri poster
4.4

Ten segments, all starring Johnny Dorelli and all having sex and sexual perversions as main theme.

Sesso e volentieri

1982

Wifemistress poster
5.6

A vineyard's manager marries the owner's very young daughter; father dies. Deceit, infidelity. The husband is forced to watch from a distance as his wife blossom socially in his absence; then the plot thickens.

Wifemistress

1977

Detective Belli poster
5.5

A crooked detective begins investigating a situation on behalf of a friend and gets involved in murder, deception and double-cross.

Detective Belli

1969

The Magnificent Cuckold poster
6.6

Andrea Artusi is a successful businessman with a beautiful wife, Maria, and a happy marriage - until he has an affair. After his own cheating, he starts to become obsessed with his wife's fidelity. Since she is one of the most desired women in town, he worries that it would be very easy for her to cheat on him. Now every time a man looks at his wife, Andrea goes crazy. Meanwhile, Maria finds out about her husband's affair and decides to plan her revenge.

The Magnificent Cuckold

1964

Department Store poster
5.8

A series of skits involving customers and store personnel from several departments of the big department store.

Department Store

1986

A Man Called Sledge poster
6.1

James Garner is Luther Sledge, the leader of a pack of rebels who are planning to steal a stash of gold. But after the thieves actually manage to get away with the bounty, they soon discover that the enemy lies within their midst. As they begin to bicker over who should get the biggest cut, the stage is set for a deadly showdown. Claude Akins and John Marley co-star in this Italian Western directed by Vic Morrow.

A Man Called Sledge

1970