Masina, Giulietta

Masina, Giulietta (1921–1994), Italian actress. Masina was born near Bologna, Italy, and started acting while she was a student. She subsequently achieved success on the radio. In 1943 she married Italian film director Federico Fellini, and she appeared in several of his films. Her first important film role was in Senza Pietà (Without Pity, 1948), for which she won an award as best supporting actress. Her portrayal of a put-upon waif in La Strada (1954) was compared to the performances of English actor Charlie Chaplin for its pathos and comedy. In Le Notti di Cabiria (1957; Nights of Cabiria) she played a naive prostitute, a role for which she won the best actress award at the Cannes Film Festival. The acclaim that greeted La Strada and Le Notti di Cabiria led to her working outside Italy in films such as the French-made Landru (1963), but without real success. Her only English-language picture, The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969), proved an expensive flop. In the meantime she had starred in Fellini's Giulietta Degli Spiriti (1965; Juliet of the Spirits), but later her screen appearances became less frequent. In 1985 she returned to the screen in her husband's Ginger e Fred (1986; Ginger and Fred), appropriately in the guise of a showbusiness veteran making a comeback.