Anna Maria Pierangeli (19 June 193210 September 1971), known internationally by the stage name Pier Angeli, was an Italian actress, model and singer. She won the Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress for her debut role in the 1950 film Tomorrow Is Too Late, and subsequently won a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress for her performance in the American film Teresa (1951).
In the United States, Angeli was typecast in "European ingénue" roles, and notably played romantic leading ladies in The Light Touch (1951), The Devil Makes Three (1952), The Story of Three Loves (1953), The Silver Chalice (1954), and Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956). She was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for her role opposite Richard Attenborough in the British film The Angry Silence (1960).
Off-screen, Angeli was known for her high-profile romantic affairs with actors Kirk Douglas and James Dean, and later her tumultuous marriage to singer Vic Damone. She died at the age of 39 of a barbiturate overdose. Her twin sister, Marisa Pavan, was also an actress.
Early life
Anna Maria Pierangeli was born in Cagliari, Sardinia in 1932, to Enrichetta () and Luigi Pierangeli, originally from Pesaro, Marche. In 1959, she released an album called Italia con Pier Angeli in which she sings in English and Italian. One reviewer called her singing voice "warm and surprisingly rich." She also continued to be hired for modelling jobs well into the 1960s.
During the 1960s and until 1970, Angeli lived and worked in Britain and Europe, and was often screen-credited under her birth name, Anna Maria Pierangeli. She starred in French, Italian and English-language movies throughout the 1960s. Her performance in The Angry Silence (1960), starring alongside her friend Richard Attenborough, was nominated for a Best Foreign Actress BAFTA, and she was reunited with Stewart Granger for Sodom and Gomorrah (1963), in which she played Lot's wife. She had a brief role in the war epic Battle of the Bulge (1965). Angeli worked in Israel and was top-billed, for Every Bastard a King (1968), about events during the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War the previous year. She was under serious consideration for a part in The Godfather (1972), but died before shooting began.
According to Kirk Douglas' autobiography The Ragman's Son, he and Angeli were engaged in the 1950s after meeting on the set of the film The Story of Three Loves (1953).
Affair with James Dean
Angeli also had a passionate romantic relationship with James Dean. They met while she was shooting The Silver Chalice (1954) and he was shooting East of Eden (1955), on an adjoining Warner lot.
Elia Kazan, the director of East of Eden (1955), remembered hearing Dean and Angeli loudly having sex in Dean's dressing room. She would later say that he was the love of her life: "He is the only man I ever loved deeply as a woman should love a man." Friends of Angeli have said she never fully recovered from his death and that she had nightmares about him up until her own death. Singer and actor Dean Martin performed at their wedding. The couple had one son, Perry (1955–2014); their 1958 divorce was followed by highly publicised court battles for the custody of their only child.
Later life and death
thumb|Armando Trovajoli and Pier Angeli on their wedding day, London, 14 February 1962
In 1962, Angeli married Italian composer Armando Trovajoli, with whom she had another son, Howard, in 1963. She and Trovajoli separated in 1969.
In the early 1970s, she returned to California after having lived in Britain and Europe throughout the 1960s, and briefly lived with her close friend Debbie Reynolds until she found a little apartment in Beverly Hills.
On 10 September 1971, at the age of 39, Angeli was found dead of a barbiturate overdose at her home in Beverly Hills. On the day of her death, Angeli had been given an injection of compazine by her doctor to calm her down (she was unable to sleep and had run out of doriden, which the doctor refused to give her).
Her former lover, Kirk Douglas, and his wife Anne Buydens, were among those who were invited to her funeral.
Filmography
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ Film
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1950
| Tomorrow Is Too Late
| Mirella
| rowspan="2" |Credited as Anna Maria Pierangeli
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1951
| Tomorrow Is Another Day
| Luisa
|-
| Teresa
| Teresa Russo
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1952
| The Light Touch
| Anna Vasarri
|
|-
| '
| Herself
| Short film
|-
| '
| Wilhelmina (Willie) Lehrt
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1953
| '
| Nina Burkhardt
| Segment: "Equilibrium"
|-
| Sombrero
| Eufemia Calderon
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1954
| Oh No, Mam'zelle
| Denise de Flavigny / Nitouche
|
|-
| Flame and the Flesh
| Lisa
|
|-
| '
| Deborra
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1956
| Meet Me in Las Vegas
| Herself
| Uncredited cameo
|-
| Somebody Up There Likes Me
| Norma
|
|-
| Port Afrique
| Ynez
|
|-
| 1957
| '
| Lucienne
|
|-
| 1958
| Merry Andrew
| Selena Gallini
|
|-
| 1959
| SOS Pacific
| Teresa
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1960
| '
| Anna Curtis
|
|-
| Estoril y sus fiestas
| Herself
| Short film
|-
| 1961
| White Slave Ship
| Polly
| rowspan="2" | Credited as Anna Maria Pierangeli
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1962
| Sodom and Gomorrah
| Ildith
|-
| Musketeers of the Sea
| Consuelo / Gracia
|
|-
| 1964
| Shadow of Evil
| Lila Sinn
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1965
| Berlin, Appointment for the Spies
| Paula Krauss
|
|-
| Battle of the Bulge
| Louise
|
|-
| rowspan="3" | 1966
| M.M.M. 83
| Hélène Blanchard
|
|-
| Per mille dollari al giorno
| Betty Benson
| Credited as Annamaria Pierangeli
|-
| Caccia ai violenti
| Ann Peterson
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1968
| Red Roses for the Fuhrer
| Marie
| Credited as Anna Maria Pierangeli
|-
| Every Bastard a King
| Eileen
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1969
| Cry Chicago
| Bambi
| rowspan="4" | Credited as Anna Maria Pierangeli
|-
| Love Me, Love My Wife
| Alexandra
|-
| rowspan="2" | 1970
| In the Folds of the Flesh
| Falesse / Ester
|-
| Quell'amore particolare
| Cecilia
|-
| 1971
| Octaman
| Susan Lowry
| Posthumous release
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Television
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| 1956
| What's My Line?
| Herself
| 1 episode
|-
| 1958
| Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse
| Bernadette Soubirous
| 1 episode
|}
Discography
- Italia con Pier Angeli (1959), Roulette, Vinyl.
Awards and nominations
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+
|-
! Award
! Year
! Category
! Work
! Result
|-
| BAFTA Awards
| 1961
| Best Foreign Actress
| '
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Golden Globe Award
| 1952
| New Star Of The Year Actress
| Teresa
|
|-
| 1955
| World Film Favorite – Female
|
|
|-
| Nastro d'Argento
| 1951
| Best Actress (Migliore Attrice)
| Domani è troppo tardi
|
|}
References
External links
- Pier Angeli Official Site
- Photographs and literature