Biography for
Alida Valli More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

31 May 1921, Pola, Istria, Italy [now Pula, Istria, Croatia]

Date of Death

22 April 2006, Rome, Italy

Birth Name

Alida Maria Laura von Altenburger

Height

5' 5" (1.65 m)

Mini Biography

This enigmatic, dark-haired foreign import was dubbed "The Next Garbo" but didn't live up to post-war expectations despite her cool, patrician beauty, remote allure and significant talent. Born in Pola, Italy (now Croatia), on May 3, 1921, the daughter of a Tridentine journalist and professor and Istrian homemaker, she studied dramatics as a teen at the Motion Picture Academy of Rome and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia before beginning in bit roles in such films as Il cappello a tre punte (1934) [The Three-Cornered Hat] and I due sergenti (1936) [The Two Sergeants]. She made a leading name for herself in Italy during WWII with the film Manon Lescaut (1940) (title role), won a Venice Film Festival award for Piccolo mondo antico (1941) [Little Old World], and was a critical sensation in Noi vivi (1942) [We the Living]. She briefly abandoned her career, however, in 1943, refusing to appear in what she considered Fascist propaganda, and was forced into hiding. The next year she married surrealist painter/pianist/composer Oscar De Mejo. They had two children, and one of them, Carlo De Mejo, became an actor. The marriage later dissolved amid a 1954 drug, sex and murder scandal that involved her former husband and his mistress, a public outbreak that nearly ruined her career.

Following her potent, award-winning work in the title role of Eugenia Grandet (1947), she was discovered and contracted by David O. Selznick to play the murder suspect Maddalena Paradine in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947). Billed during her Hollywood years simply as "Valli," Selznick also gave her top femme female billing in Carol Reed's classic film noir The Third Man (1949), but for every excellent turn in the above-mentioned films, she experienced such failures as The Miracle of the Bells (1948), and the audiences stayed away. In 1951, she bid a quick farewell to Hollywood and returned to her beloved Italy. In Europe again, she became well sought after by the best of directors. Her countess in Luchino Visconti's Senso (1954) was widely heralded, and she moved easily from ingénue to vivid character roles. Later stand-out films encompassed costume dramas as well as shockers and had her playing everything from baronesses to grandmothers, including Les yeux sans visage (1960) [Eyes Without a Face], Le gigolo (1960), Edipo re (1967) [Oedipus Rex], Tendre Dracula (1974), _1900 (1976)_ , Suspiria (1977), La luna (1979), Inferno (1980), Aspern (1985), A Month by the Lake (1995), and, her most recent, Semana Santa (2002).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Oscar De Mejo	(1944 - 1952) (divorced) 2 children
Giancarlo Zagni	(195? - 1969) (separated)

Trivia

Refused to make any more films for fascist Italy and she had to go into hiding to avoid arrest and execution.

Her mother was shot by anti-fascists in 1945.

Involved in an infamous drug, sex and murder scandal in 1954.

Mother of actor Carlo De Mejo and of Lorenzo De Mejo.

Her name Alida means "flies like a bird."

Gregory Peck, who worked with Alida in The Paradine Case (1947), said of her, "Not only are her shapes and features perfect: from her eyes radiates an irresistible flashing of love."

Voiced the character Dr. Constance Petersen in a 1940s radio broadcast of Hitchcock's classic Spellbound.

Received a special tribute as part of the Annual Memorial tribute at The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) (TV).

Grandmother of actor-director Pierpaolo De Mejo.

Browse biographies section by name

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z