Gianna Maria Canale (12 September 1927 – 13 February 2009) was an Italian film actress.

Biography

Canale was born in 1927 in

Reggio Calabria Reggio di Calabria (; ), commonly and officially referred to as Reggio Calabria, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, is the List of cities in Italy, largest city in Calabria as well as the seat of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria. As ...

. In 1947, she competed in the Miss Italia beauty contest, where she was runner-up to Lucia Bosè. Following this, she appeared in many Italian magazines, with her looks being compared to those of

Ava Gardner Ava Lavinia Gardner (December 24, 1922 – January 25, 1990) was an American actress during the Golden Age of Hollywood. She first signed a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew critics' att ...

Canale was offered a role in a movie by

Riccardo Freda Riccardo Freda (24 February 1909 – 20 December 1999) was an Italian film director. He worked in a variety of genres, including sword-and-sandal, horror film, horror, ''giallo'' and spy films. Freda began directing ''I Vampiri'' in 1956. The f ...

, with whom she eventually fell in love. They moved to

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

where they were married and worked together in two movies. As Canale did not enjoy living in South America, the couple returned to Italy where, often directed by her husband, she starred in many

Sword-and-sandal Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum (: pepla), is a subgenre of largely Italy, Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget ...

movies, as well as horror and adventure ones. '' I vampiri'' was her last film with Freda. Canale retired from acting in 1964 at the age of 37. She died in

Sutri Sutri (Latin ''Sutrium'') is an Ancient town, modern ''comune'' and former bishopric (now a Latin titular see) in the province of Viterbo, about from Rome and about south of Viterbo. It is picturesquely situated on a narrow tuff hill, surrounded ...

, Viterbo in January 2009.

Filmography

External links

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Gianna Maria Canale
at MSN Movies {{DEFAULTSORT:Canale, Gianna Maria 1927 births 2009 deaths Actresses from Calabria Actors from Reggio Calabria Italian film actresses 20th-century Italian actresses