Maria Michi

Maria Michi (14 May 1921 – 7 April 1980) was an Italian supporting actress who worked with Roberto Rossellini on his two early neorealism masterpieces: Rome, Open City and Paisà.

Michi worked first as a typist at a law firm, then as an usherette at Teatro Quattro Fontane in Rome. She was noticed and given small parts in the company of Sergio Tofano and Diana Torrieri during the 1942-1943 season. Critic Irene Bignardi called her “a woman very near the resistance and the Communist Party”. In 1948, she worked with Christian-Jaque in La Chartreuse de Parme. She was married in September 1949 to Duke Augusto Torlonia, and left the world of cinema for the theater, particularly working with director Guido Salvini. The marriage was annulled in San Marino in 1956. She resumed her film career in the 1960s and 1970s, when she did 12 films, including Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris and Tinto Brass’s Salon Kitty, her last film.

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