Biography for
Pier Angeli More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

19 June 1932, Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy

Date of Death

10 September 1971, Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (barbiturate overdose)

Birth Name

Anna Maria Pierangeli

Height

5' (1.52 m)

Mini Biography

Anna Maria Pierangeli was born June 19, 1932, in Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy. Anna and her twin sister, Marisa Pavan, both had their eyes on become film stars, since that was one of the big Italian pastimes. Anna adopted her surname and split it in half, and it was as Pier Angeli that she would find fame. Her first role was an uncredited part in 1948's The Million Dollar Nickel (1952), an Italian production. Pier was 16 at the time and it was to be the first of many roles for this beautiful woman. The film was largely forgettable but it was a start. The following year she played in another Italian production, Domani è troppo tardi (1950). Again it was a very small role, and she was not seen on the screen again until 1951. Between 1949 and 1951 she appeared in stage productions and found work in menial jobs. When she did return it was in the film The Light Touch (1952) as Anna Vasarri. Later that year she won the title role in Teresa (1951). However, she again hit a drought with only one film in 1952 and two in 1953. The next year things began to pick up, however, with Hollywood beckoning at her door. After the Italian Mam'zelle Nitouche (1954) she caught the eyes of Hollywood moguls, who cast her in Flame and the Flesh (1954) and The Silver Chalice (1954). Now she divided her time between Italy and the US making movies. She married Vic Damone in 1954, a union that lasted only four years and produced one son.

No film offers came in 1955, but in 1956 Pier landed the plum role of Norma Graziano (wife of fighter Rocky Graziano) in Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) opposite Paul Newman. The film was well received at the box office and she had hopes that things were going to pick up again. She played Ynez in Port Afrique (1956) later that year and then another drought ensued. After The Vintage (1957), Merry Andrew (1958) and SOS Pacific (1959), she made three more films in 1960. Then once again 1961 saw no appearances. In 1962 Pier played Ildith in Sodom and Gomorrah (1962) and later that year played in a French production entitled L'ammutinamento (1961). After the Italian production of Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117 (1964) she returned in the hit European-American co-production Battle of the Bulge (1965).

After a handful of films between 1966 and 1970, Pier realized her dreams of superstardom were not to be. She had divorced her second husband (Armando Trovajoli) in 1969 and made her final appearance on the screen in 1971 in the low-budget sci-fi opus Octaman (1971). On September 10 of that year Pier was found dead of a barbiturate overdose in her Beverly Hills home. She was only 39 years old.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Denny Jackson

Spouse

Armando Trovajoli	(14 February 1962 - 1969) (divorced) 1 child
Vic Damone	(24 November 1954 - 18 December 1958) (divorced) 1 child

Trivia

Reportedly, Pier and James Dean were very much in love and wanted to marry, but her mother was against the union because of Dean's behavior, and helped arrange Pier's marriage to Vic Damone. Three years before she died, the National Inquirer magazine published an interview in which Pier would have said that Dean was the only man she had ever really loved.

Twin sister of actress Marisa Pavan.

Screen, stage, and television actress.

Dated James Dean while he was filming East of Eden (1955).

Had one son with Vic Damone, Perry, who works as a radio DJ and owns an entertainers representation in Phoenix, Arizona.

Kirk Douglas, in his autobiography "The Ragman's Son", states that he was engaged to Pier in the early 1950s.

In different situations but almost simultaneously, Léonide Moguy and Vittorio De Sica' chose her for her first role.

When shooting a central scene with Michael Craig in The Angry Silence (1960), she was so immersed into her character that she left the script and started to shout in Italian. The scene was so impressive that it remained in the film.

Sister-in-law of Jean-Pierre Aumont.

Personal Quotes

I have loved one person in my whole life, and that was James Dean.

[about her first role as Mirella in Domani è troppo tardi (1950)] When the scenes begin, I change completely. I was not Anna. Like when you drink cold, cold water and feel it run like ice inside. I felt I was another girl, not me.

[about Debbie Reynolds] I don't know what I would have done without Debbie. Debbie was, is and always will be my very dearest and best friend - we are like sisters.

[about her relationship with actor James Dean] He wanted me to love him unconditionally, but Jimmy was not able to love someone else in return . . . it was the troubled boy that wanted to be loved very badly. I loved Jimmy as I have loved no one else in my life, but I could not give him the enormous amount that he needed. Loving Jimmy was something that could empty a person.

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