Daniela Rocca

Daniela Rocca (12 September 1937 – 28 May 1995) was an Italian actress, model and writer.

Daniela Rocca
Born	(1937-09-12)12 September 1937 Acireale, Italy
Died	28 May 1995(1995-05-28) (aged 57) Milo, Italy
Years active	1955–1970

Biography

Rocca was born and raised in Acireale, a small town near Catania. She became Miss Catania in 1953, and was discovered by talent scouts after competing in a Miss Italy competition.

Rocca made her film debut in French director Maurice Cloche's Marchands de Filles (1957) and also appeared in the Riccardo Freda film Caltiki – The Immortal Monster (Caltiki – il mostro immortale, 1959), and Esther and the King (1960). More film roles followed, but Rocca did not garner international attention until Divorce, Italian Style (Divorzio all'Italiana, 1961). Rocca became a star after playing the part of the smothering wife Marcello Mastroianni is desperate to escape in Pietro Germi's international box-office hit. Rocca fell in love with Germi during filming and attempted suicide when he rejected her. After that, she was considered unstable and was not offered significant roles. A nervous breakdown led to a stay in a mental hospital.

After playing minor roles in movies and television, her show business career ended in 1967. She ended her days in a retirement home in Milo, near Catania. There she wrote four books: Agente segreto con licenza di vivere; Avvocato offresi; Il condannato a morte; and Psicoanalisi, sogni, fantasie nascosti nella mente; and a collection of poems, Ara.

Partial filmography

• La Luciana (1954)
• Il nostro campione (1955)
• Il padrone sono me (1955) - Nunziata
• Addio sogni di gloria (1957)
• Marchands de filles (1957) - Bettina
• Head of a Tyrant (1959) - Naomi
• Non perdiamo la testa (1959) - Volante
• Caltiki – The Immortal Monster (1959) - Linda
• Legions of the Nile (1959) - Teyrè
• The Giant of Marathon (1959) - Karis
• Austerlitz (1960) - Caroline Bonaparte
• Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960) - Melitta
• Esther and the King (1960) - Queen Vashti
• Revenge of the Barbarians (1960) - Galla Placidia, Onorius' Sister
• Rome 1585 (1961) - Princess Alba of Portoreale
• Divorce, Italian Style (1961) - Rosalia Cefalù
• Peccati d'estate (1962) - Teresa
• The Captive City (1962) - Doushka
• I Don Giovanni della Costa Azzurra (1962) - Assuntina Greco, aka Géneviève
• L'attico (1963) - Silvana D'Angelo
• Symphonie pour un massacre (1963) - Hélène Valoti
• The Empty Canvas (1963) - Rita
• Behold a Pale Horse (1964) - Rosana, Mistress of Vinolas
• The Sucker (1965) - (uncredited)
• Assicurasi vergine (1967) - Carmela - don Pippo's lover
• Un giorno, una vita (1970) - Olga (final film role)

External links

• Daniela Rocca at IMDb