Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, star of '8½' and 'The Leopard,' dies aged 87

The acclaimed Italian actress, Claudia Cardinale, famous for her roles in The Leopard and 8½, has died at the age of 87.

Her agent Laurent Savry told French news agency AFP that she passed away on Tuesday at her home in Nemours in France, surrounded by her children.

Cardinale starred in more than 100 films and made-for-television productions, but was best known for her role in Federico Fellini’s 8½, in which she co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni in 1963.

She also won praise for her role as Angelica Sedara in Luchino Visconti’s award-winning screen adaptation of the historical novel The Leopard, and as a reformed sex worker in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968.

"She leaves us the legacy of a free and inspired woman, both as a woman and as an artist," Savry said, as quoted by Italian media.

She was born Claude Joséphine Rose Cardin in La Goulette in Tunisia, to a Sicilian father and a French mother on 15 April 1938.

At age 17, Cardinale won a beauty contest in 1957, in which she was named the most beautiful Italian woman in Tunis. The contest brought her to the Venice Film Festival, which helped launch her movie career.

Before entering the competition, Cardinale had expected to become a school teacher.

Along with Brigitte Bardot, she became an iconic film star of the 1960s European cinema.

In 1962, she starred alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo in Cartouche, and then went on to star in three of the decade's greatest films: Luchino Visconti's The Leopard, Federico Fellini's 8½, and The Pink Panther.

In 1968, she played Jill McBain in Sergio Leone's monumental spaghetti western Once Upon a Time in the West, and in 1982 she was Klaus Kinski's partner in Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo.

Cardinale was a liberal with strong political convictions and a major advocate for women's and LGBTQ+ rights.

She has been a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Women's Rights since 1999 and a Knight of the French Legion of Honour since 2008.

She had two children, one with Cristaldi and a second with her later companion, Italian director Pasquale Squitieri.