Lydia Alfonsi

Lydia Alfonsi (born 28 April 1928) is an Italian former actress.

Life and career

Born Lidia Alfonsi in Parma into a wealthy middle-class family, Alfonsi interrupted her accounting studies at a young age to pursue a career in theater. 

In 1946 she won in a national competition for amateur dramatics and was noticed by one of the judges, the director Anton Giulio Bragaglia, who immediately hired her for his stage company. Soon she was cast in leading roles in dramas and often in classical works, including many Greek tragedies. 

In 1957 she made her film debut, then in 1960 she started a professional and sentimental relationship (lasted until his death in a car accident in 1963) with television director Giacomo Vaccari, starring in several successful RAI TV-dramas directed by him. In the mid-1970s Alfonsi semi-retired, making sporadic appearances only in 1988 (with the TV movie Una lepre con la faccia da bambina), in 1990 (in Gianni Amelio's Open Doors) and in 1997 (in Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful).

Alfonsi was appointed Grand Officer of the Italian Republic.