Valentina Elena Cortese Rossi di Coenzo (1 January 1923 – 10 July 2019), sometimes credited as Valentina Cortesa, was an Italian film and theatre actress. Her screen career spanned over 100 productions across over five decades, from 1941 until 1993. Cortese won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, and was nominated for both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for her performance in the film Day for Night (1973). In 2013, she received the French Order of Arts and Letters.
Over the course of her career, Cortese worked with many important Italian and international directors, including Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, Franco Zeffirelli, François Truffaut, Joseph L. Mankiewicz and Terry Gilliam.
Early years
thumb|left|Cortese in [[Appassionata (1974 film)|Appassionata (1974)]]
Cortese was born on New Year's Day in Milan. Her parents were Olga Cortese and Napoleone Rossi di Coenzo, of noble origins. Cortese's father abandoned her mother shortly before her birth, and she was raised by her mother in the countryside, before being sent to Turin to live with her maternal grandparents in 1930. and Robert Wise's The House on Telegraph Hill (1951).
In 1960, Cortese and Basehart divorced, and Basehart returned to the US, leaving in her custody their only child, Jackie. the National Society of Film Critics Award and the New York Film Critics Circle Award, and was nominated for the Academy Award which ultimately went to Ingrid Bergman. In her acceptance speech, Bergman remarked that she felt Cortese should have won the award.
While her later films were mostly of lesser artistic interest, Cortese was continuously successful on stage,
Filmography
Features
{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| rowspan=4|1941 || L'orizzonte dipinto || ||
|-
| The Actor Who Disappeared || ||
|-
| The Hero of Venice || Alina ||
|-
| First Love || Nerina Redi ||
|-
| rowspan=7|1942 || Girl of the Golden West || Madge / Juanita ||
|-
| The Jester's Supper || Lisabetta ||
|-
| The Queen of Navarre || Eleonora d'Austria ||
|-
| Soltanto un bacio || Maria Renda / Luisa Renda ||
|-
| Orizzonte di sangue || Lidia ||
|-
| Fourth Page || Valentina ||
|-
| Happy Days || Marianna ||
|-
| rowspan=2|1943 || 4 ragazze sognano || Enrichetta Dorlence ||
|-
| La carica degli eroi || ||
|-
| rowspan=3|1945 || No Turning Back || Valentina ||
|-
| The Ten Commandments || || Segment: “Non nominare il nome di Dio invano”
|-
| Chi l'ha visto? || Luisella ||
|-
| rowspan=2|1946 || Rome, Free City || La ragazza ||
|-
| A Yank in Rome || Maria / La maestrina ||
|-
| rowspan=2|1947 || Bullet for Stefano || Barbara ||
|-
| The Courier of the King || Louise de Renal ||
|-
| rowspan=3|1948 || Les Misérables || Fantine / Cosette ||
|-
| The Wandering Jew || Esther ||
|-
| Crossroads of Passion || Maria Pilar ||
|-
|rowspan=4| 1949 || The Glass Mountain || Alida ||
|-
| Black Magic || Zoraida ||
|-
| Thieves' Highway || Rica ||
|-
| Malaya || Luana ||
|-
|rowspan=2| 1950 || Women Without Names || Anna Petrovic ||
|-
| Shadow of the Eagle || Elizabeth, Princess Tarakanova ||
|-
| rowspan=2|1951 || The Rival of the Empress || Principessa Tarakanova ||
|-
| The House on Telegraph Hill || Victoria Kowelska ||
|-
| 1952 || Secret People || Maria ||
|-
| rowspan=3|1953 || Lulu || Lulù ||
|-
| Jealousy || Agrippina || Voice, Uncredited
|-
| The Walk || Lisa ||
|-
| rowspan=4|1954 || Angels of Darkness || Vally ||
|-
| Marriage || Natalia Stefanovna Chubukova ||
|-
| Avanzi di galera || Moglie di Luprandi ||
|-
| The Barefoot Contessa || Eleanora Torlato-Favrini ||
|-
| rowspan=3|1955 || Adriana Lecouvreur || Adriana Lecouvreur ||
|-
| Le Amiche || Nene ||
|-
| Il conte Aquila || Teresa Casati ||
|-
|rowspan=3| 1956 || Faccia da mascalzone || ||
|-
| Magic Fire || Mathilde Wesendonk ||
|-
| The Rocket from Calabuch || Eloisa ||
|-
| rowspan=2|1957 || Dimentica il mio passato || ||
|-
| Kean: Genius or Scoundrel || Fanny || Uncredited
|-
|rowspan=2| 1958 || Amore a prima vista || — ||
|-
| Love and Troubles || Marisa ||
|-
| rowspan=2|1961 || Square of Violence || Erica Bernardi ||
|-
| Barabbas || Julia ||
|-
| 1962 || Axel Munthe, The Doctor of San Michele || Eleonora Duse ||
|-
| 1963 || The Girl Who Knew Too Much || Laura Craven-Torrani ||
|-
| 1964 || The Visit || Mathilda Miller ||
|-
|rowspan=2| 1965 || The Possessed || Irma ||
|-
| Juliet of the Spirits || Valentina ||
|-
| 1966 || Black Sun || Maria ||
|-
|rowspan=3| 1968 || The Legend of Lylah Clare || Countess Bozo Bedoni ||
|-
| Listen, Let's Make Love || Lallo's Mother ||
|-
| Oh, Grandmother's Dead || Ornella ||
|-
| 1969 || The Secret of Santa Vittoria || Gabriella || Uncredited
|-
| rowspan=3|1970 || Give Her the Moon || Madeleine de Lépine ||
|-
| First Love || Mother ||
|-
| The Love Mates || Eva ||
|-
|rowspan=2| 1971 || The Boat on the Grass || Christine ||
|-
| The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire || Mrs. Sobiesky ||
|-
|rowspan=3| 1972 || Chronicle of a Homicide || Luisa Sola ||
|-
| Brother Sun, Sister Moon || Pica di Bernardone ||
|-
| The Assassination of Trotsky || Natalia Sedova Trotsky ||
|-
| 1973 || Day for Night || Séverine ||
|-
|rowspan=4| 1974 || Appassionata || Elisa Rutelli ||
|-
| Tendre Dracula || || Uncredited
|-
| The Kiss of Death || Elizabeth Blixen ||
|-
| Don't Hurt Me, My Love || Sabina Foschini ||
|-
|rowspan=3| 1975 || Dracula in the Provinces || Olghina Franchetti ||
|-
| Kidnap Syndicate || Grazia Filippini ||
|-
| Son tornate a fiorire le rose || Sabina Foschini ||
|-
| rowspan=2|1976 || Nick the Sting || Regina, Nick's mother ||
|-
| The Big Operator || The Widow ||
|-
| 1977 || Nido de viudas || Dolores ||
|-
| 1978 || Tanto va la gatta al lardo... || Vilma / Leonilde Bosco Casagrande ||
|-
| 1979 || Satan's Wife || Elena Merrill ||
|-
| 1980 || When Time Ran Out || Rose Valdez ||
|-
| 1982 || La ferdinanda: Sonate für eine Medici-Villa || Caterina de Dominicis ||
|-
|rowspan=2| 1987 || Monte Napoleone || Madre di Guido ||
|-
| Tango blu || Rachele Cigno ||
|-
|rowspan=2| 1988 || Young Toscanini || || Uncredited
|-
| The Adventures of Baron Munchausen || Queen Ariadne / Violet ||
|-
| 1991 || Buster's Bedroom || Serafina Tannenbaum ||
|-
| 1993 || Sparrow || Mother Superior || Final film role
|}
Partial Television Credits
{| class="wikitable sortable sticky-header"
|-
! Year
! Title
! Role
! Notes
|-
| 1977 || Jesus of Nazareth || Herodias ||
|-
|}