Maria Michi

Biography

First a typist at a law firm, young Maria Michi then became an usherette at Teatro Quattro Fontane in Rome. She was in the right place to become an actress, for was soon noticed and given small parts in the company of Sergio Stofano and Diana Torreri during the 1942-1943 season. Her first major assignment was in the revue 'Con un palmo di naso' with 'Toto' and Anna Magnani. Her companion at that time was screenwriter Sergio Amidei, which was another chance, since he introduced her to Roberto Rossellini. Hence a breathtaking debut for the beautiful young actress who appeared in two masterpieces of Italian neorealism on the run: Open City (in which she was the two-faced fiancée of a resistant) and Paisan (where she was the moving Francesca, an ordinary girl turned prostitute due to the postwar circumstances). Her next films paled by comparison and Maria Michi, disappointed by the turn of her career, quit the movie world for no less than thirteen years. During this period she married Prince Augusto Torlonia and returned to the theatre. She made her comeback in 1960 and for fifteen years Maria Michi, now a very good mature character actress, appeared in small parts in good movies signed Claude Chabrol, Bernardo Bertolucci, Peter Del Monte and Mauro Bolognini. She also did worthwhile radio and television work. She retired in 1976 and died too young at the age of fifty-eight.