Italian Virni Lisi (born in 1937 as Virna Lisa Pieralisi) began her film career as a teenager in 1953. Cast more for her stunning looks than talent, her early films included "Donna del giorno, La (1956)", "Don't Tempt the Devil (1962)", and the Italian-made spectacle "Romolo e Remo (1961)". The pert and sexy star also made a decorative dent in Hollywood comedy as a tempting blue-eyed blonde starri ...  show all 

Italian Virni Lisi (born in 1937 as Virna Lisa Pieralisi) began her film career as a teenager in 1953. Cast more for her stunning looks than talent, her early films included "Donna del giorno, La (1956)", "Don't Tempt the Devil (1962)", and the Italian-made spectacle "Romolo e Remo (1961)". The pert and sexy star also made a decorative dent in Hollywood comedy as a tempting blue-eyed blonde starring opposite Jack Lemmon in "How to Murder Your Wife (1965)", and appearing with Tony Curtis in "Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966)". Confined to the same type of glamour roles here, she returned to Europe within a couple of years but hardly fared better in such mediocre movies as "Arabella (1967)". In later decades, however, a career renaissance occurred for Virna. She began to be perceived as more than just a tasty dish, giving a wide variety of mature, award-winning performances. It all culminated in the role of a lifetime with the film "Reine Margot, La (1994)", in which she played a marvelously malevolent Catherine de Medici and won both the Cesar and Cannes Film Festival awards, not to mention the Italian version of the "Oscar."
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