Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini's Oscar-winning “8½” has died. A statement from her family carried by state-run RAI television says that Milo died Monday in her sleep at home in Rome. She was 90.
Sandra Milo was an Italian actress, television personality, author, and musician. She won a Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actress for each of her roles in Federico Fellini's 8½ and Juliet of the Spirits. During the 1950s and 1960s the dark-haired Tunisian leading lady Sandra Milo played bored patricians, manipulative mistresses and other enticing ladies of questionable morals with typical sensuous flare in scores of Italian and French productions. Born Elena Liliana Greco in Tunis on March 11, 1933, Sandra made her film debut at age 20 co-starring tauntingly alongside Alberto Sordi in Lo scapolo (1955) and renamed herself to Sandra Milo.
For the next full decade, Sandra Milo unleashed her fiery figure on a number of tempted male players in scores of saucy comedies, feisty costume and steamy melodramas. Such films included Nero's Weekend (1956), Les aventures d'Arsène Lupin (1957), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1958), Toto in the Moon (1958), Il Generale Della Rovere (1959), and the period comedy romp The Green Mare's Nest (1959) starring the great French actor Bourvil, which served as the inspiration to the bawdy classic "Tom Jones."
Due to family problems, Milo intrumpts her film career and returns later to television; working on the radio in a 6 a.m. broadcast, then finally her debut in television with a Tg1 column "Tam Tam" that begins with a report on the Milan stock exchange, inventing the information show. It is a success, and she will win a television journalistic award. Giovanni Minoli wants her at "Mixer," Rai's event program, and has her joined by Giorgio Montefoschi, a brilliant writer, and together they will redefine a type of information show. Milo would interview celebrities from politics and show business in an original and lighthearted series for three years. In those years she would co-host with maestro Luttazzi the four episodes of Raiuno's Saturday night show "Studio Uno" directed by the legendary Antonello Falqui.
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