Biography for
Alida Valli More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

31 May 1921, Pola, Istria, Italy [now Pula, Istria, Croatia]

Date of Death

22 April 2006, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Birth Name

Alida Maria Laura von Altenburger

Height

5' 5" (1.65 m)

Mini Biography

Enigmatic, dark-haired foreign import Alida Valli was dubbed "The Next Garbo" but didn't live up to postwar expectations despite her cool, patrician beauty, remote allure and significant talent. Born in Pola, Italy (now Croatia), on May 3, 1921, the daughter of a Tridentine journalist and professor and an Istrian homemaker, she studied dramatics as a teen at the Motion Picture Academy of Rome and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia before snaring bit roles in such films as Three Cornered Hat (1935) ["The Three-Cornered Hat"] and The Two Sergeants (1936) ["The Two Sergeants"]. She made a name for herself in Italy during WWII playing the title role in Manon Lescaut (1940), won a Venice Film Festival award for Piccolo mondo antico (1941) ["Little Old World"] and was a critical sensation in Noi vivi (1942) ["We the Living"]. She briefly abandoned her career, however, in 1943, refusing to appear in what she considered fascist propaganda, and was forced into hiding. The next year she married surrealist painter/pianist/composer Oscar De Mejo. They had two children, and one of them, Carlo De Mejo, became an actor. The marriage later dissolved amid a 1954 drug, sex and murder scandal that involved her former husband and his mistress, a public outbreak that nearly ruined her career.

Following her potent, award-winning work in the title role of Eugenie Grandet (1946), she was discovered and contracted by David O. Selznick to play the murder suspect Maddalena Paradine in Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case (1947). She was billed during her Hollywood years simply as "Valli," and Selznick also gave her top femme female billing in Carol Reed's classic film noir The Third Man (1949), but for every successful film--such as the ones previously mentioned--she experienced such failures as The Miracle of the Bells (1948), and audiences stayed away. In 1951 she bid farewell to Hollywood and returned to her beloved Italy. In Europe again, she was sought after by the best directors. Her countess in Luchino Visconti's Senso (1954) was widely heralded, and she moved easily from ingénue to vivid character roles. Later standout films encompassed costume dramas as well as shockers and had her playing everything from baronesses to grandmothers in such films as Eyes Without a Face (1960) ["Eyes Without a Face"], The Gigolo (1960), Oedipus Rex (1967) ["Oedipus Rex"], Tender Dracula, or Confessions of a Blood Drinker (1974), 1900 (1976), Suspiria (1977), Luna (1979), Inferno (1980), Aspern (1982), A Month by the Lake (1995) and, her most recent, Angel of Death (2002).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net

Spouse

Oscar De Mejo	(1944 - 1952) (divorced) 2 children
Giancarlo Zagni	(195? - 1969) (separated)

Trivia

Her mother was shot by anti-fascists in 1945.

Involved in an infamous drug, sex and murder scandal in 1954.

Mother of actor Carlo De Mejo and of Lorenzo De Mejo.

Her name Alida means "flies like a bird."

Gregory Peck, who worked with Alida in The Paradine Case (1947), said of her, "Not only are her shapes and features perfect: from her eyes radiates an irresistible flashing of love."

Voiced the character of "Dr. Constance Petersen" in a 1940s radio broadcast of Alfred Hitchcock's classic, Spellbound (1945).

Received a special tribute as part of the Annual Memorial tribute at The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) (TV).

Grandmother of actor-director Pierpaolo De Mejo.

She is buried in the Cimitero Monumentale del Verano in Rome.