An Italian actress born in 1946, Stefania Sandrelli has starred in many Italian films over the years and is best known for having played a wide variety of roles in the comedy all Italiana (Italian-style comedy). She won a beauty contest at the young age of 14, and shortly after that she became a cover girl on the Italian magazine Le Ore. Her beauty inspired a number of people to offer her film roles, and she made her on-screen debut in an Italian film called The Fascist. Her big break came when she landed the starring role in the 1961 film Divorce, Italian Style. Stefania went on to have a daughter when she was only 18, but it didn’t put a halt to her film career! The Conformist and 1900 are some of her better known drama films, and she also starred in the 1983 erotic film The Key.
Cloris Leachman has been acting since 1942, when she was only 16 years old. Highlights of her career include winning an Academy Award for her role in the 1971 film The Last Picture Show and winning a record-breaking total of eight Primetime Emmy Awards. Cloris is also remembered for her roles in Young Frankenstein, The Facts of Life, and Malcom in the Middle. Between 2010 and 2014, she starred on the television series Raising Hope. In 2008, Cloris appeared on Dancing with the Stars. She was 82 years old at the time, making her the oldest contestant to have ever appeared on the show. Incredibly, the 90 year old actress is still acting today! She starred in the 2016 film So B. It and is currently filming an upcoming television series called American Gods.
Born in Paris to an upper-class French family, Dominique Sanda ran away from home at the age of 16 to get married. She divorced two years later, and took up modelling to support herself. She was working for Vogue when she landed the starring role the 1969 drama A Gentle Woman, and she impressed critics and audiences alike. She went on to be cast in a long list of French films over the next four decades, and some of her better known works include The Conformist, Beyond Good and Evil, and Steppenwolf. Dominique married a Romanian university professor in 2000, and has one child from a previous relationship with actor/director Christian Marquand. Now in her 60s, she still appears in films on a regular basis.
Born in 1943, Hanna Schygulla is one of the most prominent German actresses of New German Cinema. In fact, many consider her to be an icon of the genre! She overcame a lot to get there; her father was held as a prisoner of war until she was 5 years old, and she spent several years in a German refugee camp with her mother. However, Hanna was unstoppable once she decided to take up acting. She first worked for director Rainer Werner Fassbinder in 1965, and she went on to become one of his favorite protegees. She was cast in 23 of his movies over the years, including Love is Colder than Death, Gods of the Plague, and Jail Bait. Most recently, she appeared in the 2016 film Unless.
French actress Stephane Audran grew up wanting to be an actress, but she suffered from a severe illness in her childhood and her mother strongly discouraged her from getting into the field. Nonetheless, she has appeared in a large number of French films over the years, including Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie and Violette Nozi’re. She also appeared in the Danish film Babette’s Feast, the English-language film The Big Red One, and the 1974 film adaptation of the Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None. Stephane was married to French director Claude Chabrol for 14 years, and he directed her in a total of 26 works, including the films Les Bonnes Femmes and La Femme Infid’le. She also has the honor of being a knight of the French Legion of Honor and an Officer of the National Order of Merit.
