They say that a career chooses you before you can choose it. This was true for the Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, whose career began at age 17 when she was chosen from the crowd at an Italian film event and titled “The Most Beautiful Italian in Tunisia.” Since then, Cardinale has appeared in more than 150 movies and is considered to be one of the Italian actresses who dominated the post WWII cinema.
Born in La Goulette, Tunisia, on April 15, 1938, Claudia Cardinale is the daughter of an Italian father and a French mother. Her first language was her mother’s native tongue, and she later learned Italian after film opportunities emerged. Although she refused the film roles offered at her prized trip to the Venice Film Festival, later she eagerly searched for a job after she found out she was pregnant.
Cardinale had minor movie roles in the late 1950s after she graduated from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome. The newbie actress eventually signed with Vides, an Italian film studio run by Franco Cristaldi, who became her first and only husband. 
Cardinale’s first major film debut was in I Soliti Ignoti (1958) with Marcello Mastroianni, and her portrayal of a flirty woman in Senilità (1962) brought her more acting roles. At the age of 24 in 1963, her career was officially launched when she co-starred with Mastroianni again, this time in 8 ½, and with Alain Delon in Il Gattopardo.
The Pink Panther (1963) was Cardinale’s first English-speaking film. She was recognized as the Italian, dark-haired beauty with a low voice and sensual body. According to IMDb, her thick French accent made producers dub her voice so American audiences could understand. Co-star David Niven described Cardinale as, “after spaghetti, Italy’s happiest invention.”
Of her manly voice, Cardinale recently told the Irish Times that it was a result of her determination as a teen to prove girls were equal to boys. “When I was young I didn’t speak very much. But when I did speak I was always fighting with men. I wanted to prove that women were as good as they were.”
In 2012, Cardinale told Italy Magazine that she described her teenage self as a wild tomboy who took challenges and proved girls could be stronger than boys. “This attitude also helped me on set when I found myself the only woman surrounded by men. I wasn’t intimidated, I felt able to compete with them.”
The “olive skin and dark-haired” beauty was considered Italy’s version of the French actress Brigitte Bardot. Like Bardot — who was nicknamed BB because of her initials — Cardinale was referred to as CC. They later co-starred in Les Pétroleuses (1971), and although they were both considered sex symbols, the two actresses differed in their sensual images. Unlike Bardot, Cardinale never appeared topless or completely nude in her acting roles. Cardinale once said, “I never felt scandal and confession were necessary to be an actress. I’ve never revealed myself or even my body in films. Mystery is very important.”
The Italian actress has appeared in more than 150 movies, which she considers as lives. “I love to work,” said Cardinale. “Usually you live only one life. But I’ve lived 154 lives. In a movie, it’s not you, it’s someone else, it’s something else.”
In the early 2000s, the star transitioned from movies to theater with success in the plays Venexiana and Come Tu Mi Vuoi. Cardinale has received various lifetime achievement awards from major and minor film festivals from around the world. Her most recent was the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Italian Contemporary Film Festival in Canada.
With a successful career and a continued interest in gender equality, Cardinale has aimed to improve the status and living conditions of girls and women with the opportunity of education. “It is with passion and dedication that I will be attentive to the needs of women and fight relentlessly for their rights,” Cardinale said. Her activism inspired the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to name her the Goodwill Ambassador of the organization in 2000. Eight years later, the actress and humanitarian was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honour medal.
No longer the young actress of the ’60s and ’70s, the 78-year-old Cardinale continues to act and has embraced her aging beauty. “You can’t stop time. I’ve never had anything done to my face, I hate the idea of a facelift. I think the secret of keeping youthful is remaining very active, never surrendering.”
Among the Italian stars, Cardinale never reached such stardom as Sophia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida, but she still managed to make her own mark in cinema.
“My philosophy of life has always been: If you want, you can. You can’t be weak if you want to do this job, I have never even remarried just to keep myself completely independent,” Cardinale told Italy Magazine. “I don’t want people to judge me for the choices I’ve made in my personal life but judge me for my work.”