International Divas
by pbn | created - 5 months ago | updated - 5 months ago | PublicActresses of a certain age often inspire continued adulation from fans of film and theatre. Some countries have a singular star, others have many. Which of these divas is your favorite?
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1. Catherine Deneuve
Actress | 8 femmes
Catherine Fabienne Deneuve was born October 22, 1943 in Paris, France. Her parents were actors. She made her movie debut in 1957, when she was barely a teenager and continued with small parts in minor films, until Roger Vadim gave her a meatier role in Vice and Virtue (1963). But her breakthrough ...
France
2. Sophia Loren
Actress | Una giornata particolare
Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome, Italy, on September 20, 1934. Her father, Riccardo Scicolone, was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother, Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and ...
Italy
3. Sônia Braga
Actress | Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos
Sônia Braga was born June 8, 1950, in Maringá, Paraná State, Brazil, to a seamstress mother and a realtor father. She starred in the film adaptation of Jorge Amado's Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands (1976), in the central role of Dona Flor. She earned American recognition and a Golden Globe ...
Brazil
4. Carmen Maura
Actress | Mujeres al borde de un ataque de "nervios"
Descendant of the conservative Spanish politician Antonio Maura, Carmen lead an art gallery and appeared in various roles in night- clubs. With Tigres de papel (1977) she had her first successful appearance on the movie screen and thereafter she worked at the theatre, the movies and in TV ...
Spain
5. Liv Ullmann
Actress | Viskningar och rop
Liv Ullmann's father was a Norwegian engineer who used to work abroad, so as a child she lived in Tokyo, Canada, New York and Oslo. In the mid-'50s she made her stage debut and in 1957 made her film debut. She really became successful, however, when she began to work for Swedish director Ingmar ...
Norway
6. Isabelle Huppert
Actress | Elle
Isabelle Huppert was born March 16, 1953, in Paris, France, but spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray. Encouraged by her mother Annick Huppert (who was a teacher of English), she followed the Conservatory of Versailles and won an acting prize for her work in Alfred de Musset's "Un caprice". She then...
France
7. Adriana Barraza
Actress | Babel
Adriana Barraza was born on March 5, 1956 in Toluca, Estado de Mexico, Mexico. She is known for her work on Babel (2006), Drag Me to Hell (2009) and Thor (2011). She has been married to Arnaldo Pipke since April 29, 2005. She was previously married to Carlos Valsagna.
Mexico
8. Barbara Sukowa
Actress | Hannah Arendt
A strikingly beautiful German lead actress, Barbara Sukowa broke into TV and films as the protégée of famed director Rainer Werner Fassbinder with his masterpiece mini-series Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) and the moody film drama Lola (1981) in the title role. In the latter, Barbara won critical ...
Germany
9. Stina Ekblad
Actress | Fanny och Alexander
Stina Ekblad was born on February 26, 1954 in Solf, Finland. She is an actress, known for Fanny and Alexander (1982), The Serpent's Way (1986) and Wallander (2005).
Finland
10. Ghita Nørby
Actress | Hamsun
Ghita Nørby was born on January 11, 1935 in Copenhagen, Denmark. She is an actress, known for Hamsun (1996), Freud Leaving Home (1991) and Nøgle hus spejl (2015). She was previously married to Svend Skipper, Jørgen Reenberg, Dario Campeotto, Henrik Rosing Wiehe and Mogens Garth-Grüner.
Denmark
11. Pernilla August
Actress | Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Pernilla August started acting as a child, performing in plays at Vår teater and at school. In 1979 she was accepted at the Statens scenskola to study acting professionally. Director Ingmar Bergman took note of her early and cast her as a nanny in his Fanny and Alexander (1982).
In 1982 she got ...
Sweden
12. Isabella Rossellini
Actress | Blue Velvet
Isabella Rossellini, the Italian actress and model who has made her home in America since 1979 and holds dual Italian and American citizenship, was born cinema royalty when she made her debut on June 18, 1952 in Rome. She is the daughter of two legends, three-time Oscar-winning Swedish-born actress ...
Italy
13. Judy Davis
Actress | Husbands and Wives
Davis was educated at Loreto Convent and the Western Institute of Technology and graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) in 1977. She found international success with the role of Adela Quested in A Passage to India (1984). Her performance was nominated an Academy Award for Best...
Australia
14. Hanna Schygulla
Actress | Die Ehe der Maria Braun
Lead icon of the influential New German Cinema of the 70's & 80's, Schygulla's natural blonde beauty and amazing versatility keep her among the world's top actresses. She won best actress at Cannes in 1983 for The Story of Piera (1983) (aka "The Story of Piera"), an Italian/German co-production. The...
Germany
15. Marisa Paredes
Actress | Todo sobre mi madre
Marisa Paredes was born on April 3, 1946 in Madrid, Madrid, Spain as María Luisa Paredes Bartolomé. She is an actress, known for All About My Mother (1999), The Skin I Live In (2011) and High Heels (1991).
Spain
16. Fanny Ardant
Actress | 8 femmes
Fanny Ardent was the youngest of 5 children born to a cavalry officer and his wife. She was raised in Monte Carlo where she was educated at a convent school. A voracious reader, she discovered Proust at age 15 and felt as though his writings were for her.
When she was 17 her father died and the ...
France
17. Hema Malini
Actress | Baghban
Hema was born in the Tamil-speaking Chakravarthy household on October 16, 1948 in Ammankudi, Tamil Nadu. Her dad's name is V.S.R. Chakravarthy and her mom, Jaya, was a film producer. She was enrolled in the Chennai-based Andhra Mahila Sabha.
After performing as a dancer in a 1961 regional movie, she...
India
18. Dimple Kapadia
Actress | Tenet
Born in a Gujerati-speaking family on June 8, 1957, daughter to businessman, Chunnibhai and Betty, Dimple has a younger sister, Simple, who was born on 15 August 1958.
She was discovered by Raj Kapoor, who signed her up opposite his son, Rishi, in the 1973 hit 'Bobby'. The film made Rishi and her ...
India
19. Rekha
Actress | Koi... Mil Gaya
Bhanurekha was born in the Tamil-speaking Ganesan household on October 10, 1954. Her dad was the popular Tamil actor, Gemini, while her mom was a popular Telugu actress, Pushpavalli. She has seven sisters and one brother. One of her sisters is Dr. Kamala Selvaraj, while another one, Radha, lives in...
India
20. Isabelle Adjani
Actress | Possession
Isabelle Yasmine Adjani was born in Gennevilliers, Hauts-de-Seine, a suburb of Paris, to Emma Augusta "Gusti" (Schweinberger) and Mohammed Adjani. Her father was a Kabyle Algerian, from Iferhounène, and her mother was a Bavarian German. She grew up speaking German fluently. After winning a school ...
France
21. Victoria Abril
Actress | ¡Átame!
This Spanish actress started studying dancing. Her teacher encouraged her to participate in her first film Obsesión (1977). After that, she was chosen by the director Narciso Ibáñez Serrador to be one of the co-hostesses of the famous TV contest Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez (1972) ...
Spain
22. Jacki Weaver
Actress | Silver Linings Playbook
Jacki Weaver was born on May 25, 1947 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia as Jacqueline Ruth Weaver. She is an actress, known for Silver Linings Playbook (2012), Animal Kingdom (2010) and Stoker (2013). She has been married to Sean Taylor since 2003. She was previously married to Derryn Hinch, ...
Australia
23. Shohreh Aghdashloo
Actress | House of Sand and Fog
Shohreh Aghdashloo was born Shohreh Vaziri-Tabar on May 11, 1952 in Tehran, Iran. In the 1970s at age 20, she achieved nationwide stardom in her homeland of Iran, starring in some prominent pictures such as The Report (1977) directed by the renowned Abbas Kiarostami, which won critics awards at the...
Iran
24. Youn Yuh-jung
Actress | Hanyo
Youn Yuh-jung was born on June 19, 1947 in South Korea. She is an actress, known for Hanyo (2010), The Bacchus Lady (2016) and Minari (2020). She was previously married to Jo Young-nam.
South Korea
25. Angélica Aragón
Actress | El crimen del Padre Amaro
Angélica Aragón was born on 11th July, in the "Central Médica" clinic, in Mexico City. Raised in a family of intellectuals and educated at some of the most celebrated schools in Mexico, like "The Modern American College", "The Sierra Nevada School", "The French - Mexican High School", Angélica ...
Mexico
26. Irene Papas
Actress | The Guns of Navarone
Irene Papas was born on September 3, 1926 in Chilimodion, Corynth, Greece as Eiríni Lelékou. She is an actress, known for The Guns of Navarone (1961), The Message (1976) and Electra (1962).
Greece
27. Gina Lollobrigida
Actress | Notre-Dame de Paris
Gina Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, Italy. Destined to be called "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", Gina possibly had St. Brigid as part of her surname. She was the daughter of a furniture manufacturer, and grew up in the pictorial mountain village. The young Gina did some ...
Italy
28. Anouk Aimée
Actress | 8½
The daughter of actress Geneviève Sorya, in 1948 she played the part of Juliette in The Lovers of Verona (1949). During the 1950s and 1960s she made various films, including Montparnasse 19 (1958) and La Dolce Vita (1960), but only Lola (1961) , Jacques Demy, and A Man and a Woman (1966) Claude ...
France
29. Harriet Andersson
Actress | Viskningar och rop
Discovered at age 20 by celebrated director Ingmar Bergman, she became part of Bergman's regular stable of performers; in fact, he wrote Summer with Monika (1953) especially for her breakthrough. Extraordinary and versatile as an actress, her roles have ranged from the naive young wife in Sawdust ...
Sweden
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