Rossana Podest

Vocation

Family

Italian actress, mainly active from the 1950s to the 1970s. Podesta moved to Rome after World War II. The sixteen-year-old was discovered by director Léonide Moguy during the preparation of the cast for the film Domani è un altro giorno, marking the beginning of a career during which she would appear in sixty films, both in Italy and abroad. Her most memorable role was as Helen in Helen of Troy, produced by Robert Wise in 1956. She could not speak English so she learned her lines by rote with a voice coach. The movie gave Podestà international exposure, and she performed alongside a young Brigitte Bardot. Thanks to her starring role in the Mexican film Rossana, she became very popular in Latin America. Podestà also starred in the movie Ulisse (1955), directed by Mario Camerini, and in the '60s and '70s she acted in some romantic movies, including Paolo il caldo and Il prete sposato. Her last performance was in Segreti segreti (1985), directed by Giuseppe Bertolucci. In Italy, she resided in Dubino (Sondrio province). She married and then divorced movie producer Marco Vicario. She subsequently lived with the famous mountain climber, explorer and journalist Walter Bonatti; he died on 13 September 2011. On 10 December 2013, Podestà died in Rome, aged 79. Link to Wikipedia biography