After 60 years in film, actress Claudia Cardinale reveals that cinema saved her life

No sil­i­con, no plas­tic surgery.. noth­ing, just a God mas­ter­piece.
Hold your breath and take a look at how this icon­ic actress looks today, at age 87…

Actress Clau­dia Car­di­nale, whose career spans over six decades, has revealed how cin­e­ma became her life­line. At 85, she cred­its the film indus­try for giv­ing her pur­pose and longevi­ty, describ­ing her­self as an untouched “God mas­ter­piece.” Despite her rise to star­dom being unplanned, Cardinale’s jour­ney was shaped by ear­ly trau­ma that cin­e­ma helped her tran­scend.

Her endur­ing lega­cy in both Ital­ian and inter­na­tion­al cin­e­ma is under­scored by her tal­ent, Mediter­ranean beau­ty, and pow­er­ful screen pres­ence. Car­di­nale remains active in the indus­try, a tes­ta­ment to her resilience and pas­sion for the craft. Dis­cov­ered at just 18 dur­ing an Ital­ian film fes­ti­val in Tunisia, she was named “Most Beau­ti­ful Ital­ian Girl.” Although she ini­tial­ly turned down act­ing offers due to a secret preg­nan­cy, she even­tu­al­ly signed an 18-year con­tract with pro­duc­er Fran­co Cristal­di.

Cristal­di not only man­aged her career but also tight­ly con­trolled her per­son­al life, even hid­ing her preg­nan­cy from the pub­lic. Despite this tumul­tuous rela­tion­ship, Cardinale’s star con­tin­ued to rise. She made her mark in leg­endary films like Fed­eri­co Fellini’s 8½ and Luchi­no Visconti’s The Leop­ard, lat­er tran­si­tion­ing to Hol­ly­wood with roles in The Pink Pan­ther and Once Upon a Time in the West.

Often com­pared to Brigitte Bar­dot, Car­di­nale earned admi­ra­tion for her prin­ci­pled approach—she famous­ly refused to appear nude, believ­ing in the pow­er of imag­i­na­tion over expo­sure. She even­tu­al­ly left Hol­ly­wood behind, choos­ing authen­tic­i­ty over wealth, and remained stead­fast in pre­serv­ing her iden­ti­ty through­out her career.

Today, Car­di­nale is a UNESCO good­will ambas­sador, active­ly pro­mot­ing women’s rights. Her life sto­ry, marked by both hard­ship and tri­umph, con­tin­ues to inspire audi­ences world­wide. She stands not only as a cin­e­mat­ic icon but also as a sym­bol of strength and self-respect.