Giulietta Masina - ©Theda Bara

The actress I highlight in this post is the Italian Giulietta Masina, who, in addition to being very successful wherever she acted, was a very cultured woman, graduated in Philosophy. Daughter of violinist and music teacher Gaetano Masina (1899-1979), she began her career at a young age, when as a teenager she fell in love with theater.  In 1942 she got her first paid job, at a radio station, where she narrated the adventures of characters written by the then-unknown Federico Fellini (1920-1993), whom she would marry a year later.

The series of radio programs brought her great success, and it didn't take long for her to be called to act in the cinema, a branch in which she was consecrated mainly alongside her husband, in acclaimed films such as “La strada” (1954) and “Le notti di Cabiria” (1957), both Oscar winners for Best Foreign Language Film, but Giulietta never won a statuette. However, she was not discouraged and continued to work alongside renowned artists such as Roberto Rossellini (1906-1977) and Alberto Lattuada (1914-2005).

In the mid-1960s he returned to present a very popular radio program called “Open Letters to Giulietta Masina”, and after that he was part of television series such as “Eleonora” (1973), written by Tullio Pinelli (1908-2009), a regular contributor to Fellini’s film scripts. Masina and Federico had a son named Pier Federico Fellini (Federichino), who was born in a forced premature birth and who, as a result, died at just over a month old.

The actress was born Giulia Anna Masina, on February 22, 1921, San Giorgio di Piano, Italy, died on: March 23, 1994, Rome, Italy, aged 73.

Giulia Anna Masina, as I have already mentioned, was married to filmmaker Federico Fellini from 1943 to 1993, when she became a widow in October, also passing away almost five months later, in March 1994.