Giulietta Masina

Giulietta Masina, originally known as Giulia Anna Masina, was born on February 22, 1921, in San Giorgio di Piano, Bologna, Italy. She was associated with a family of educators, where her father, Gaetano Masina, was a teacher in music and used to play the violin. Her mother, Anna Flavia Pasqualini, used to educate school children. Masina was brought up by her widowed Aunt in Rome. There, she spent her early days as a child, and also established her adolescence. Giulia was the youngest of all her siblings, namely, Eugenia and her twin siblings, Mario and Maria. Giulia got herself educated in the fields of dance, piano, and also took vocal lessons at Ursuline Sisters’ School. In spite of not taking any acting lessons, Giulia performed in many stage acts. She attained her graduation from the Sapienza University of Rome, in literature.

In the Ateneo Theatre of her University, Masina participated in several on-stage plays, where she used to sing, dance and also play characters. She got associated with Compagnia del Teatro Comico Musicale, in 1942, and there she got designated to perform a variety of characters. After seeing her photographs, Fellini hired Masina, Fellini used to write in the radio then. Therefore, Masina gained recognition as a radio worker as she progressed with her work with Fellini. She got her first role to play in a radio series titled, ‘Terziglio’, scripted by Fellini. Working together brought Masina and Fellini close, so close that they got struck by Cupid. The couple got married on 30th October, 1943. Post marriage, Masina opted to distance herself from her appearances on stage, though she returned to the stage of her University starring opposite Marcello Mastroianni. She had been last seen on stage in 1951.

After resigning from her stage shows, Masina kept working in her husband’s company, and eventually she made a jump to the screens with acting as her profession, where mostly she enacted in her husband’s film or script. In 1946, she made her debut with an Italian film titled, ‘Paisa’, directed by Rossellini and scripted by Fellini. Masina earned her first award in a 1948 film named, Without Pity, where she played a lead along with John Kitzmiller, which had also been written by Fellini.

Masina bagged the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1957, for her role in Nights of Cabiria, another of her husband’s. In this film, she portrayed the life of a prostitute. The 1960 film, The High Life, marked the descent of her career in the Italian Industry of movies. After the devastating failure, she did not give any importance to her professional life and got immersed in her personal life. However, she did make a comeback with Fellini’s, Juliet of the Spirits, in 1965, which bagged her The New York Film Critics Award, and also the Golden Globe Award in 1966.

In 1969, she got hired in an English comedy drama titled, The Madwoman of Chaillot, starring opposite Katharine Hepburn Katharine Houghton Hepburn was born on 12th May in >> Read More... . Next, she concentrated specifically on television series, and then she returned to act in Fellini’s, Ginger and Fred.

Post marriage, when Masina and Fellini were expecting a child, Masina lost her child after she rolled off the staircase. Luckily, she got pregnant once again and delivered a son named Pierfederico on March 22, 1945. Unfortunately, the child expired when he was just a month old, due to encephalitis. The couple did not plan a child further.

Masina, who was suffering from lung cancer, passed away on 23rd March, 1994 when she was 73 years of age. Her husband had died just five months prior to her. It was a request made by her that at her funeral service the tunes of La Strada by Nino Rota be played by the trumpeters. Masina and Fellini are buried in the same ground at the Rimini Cemetery.