The face of post-war Italian comedy, the Belgian-Italian actress died in a Roman clinic at the age of 77, the Rai television channel of which she was a popular face reported on Monday.
Daughter of screenwriter Charles Spaak, niece of former Belgian Prime Minister Paul-Henri Spaak, one of the “founding fathers” of Europe, Catherine Spaak was born on April 3, 1945 in France, in Boulogne-Billancourt, in the western suburbs of Paris.
She tours with Jacques Becker (The hole) before leaving for Italy where she would become a star actress and host in both cinema and television.
“I didn’t want to be an actress but a classical dancer, unfortunately I was too tall at the time. But doing this job saved me”she will tell after her hemorrhage in one of her last interviews.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVeTNFE7CJA
She appears in The Braggart by Dino Risi, The nine tailed cat by Dario Argento Weekend in Zuydcoote by Henri Verneuil or even secret scandal by Monica Vitti. A total of 80 feature films for cinema and television.
Singer, she recorded in particular in 1963 Quelli della mia etàadapted from All the boys and girls by Francoise Hardy. In the 1980s she devoted herself to television as a host / presenter and participated in the 2000s in reality TV shows.
From 1988 to 2002, she hosted a talk show for women on Rai 3, where she received, among others, Catherine Deneuve, Monica Bellucci, Isabel Allende and Ornella Muti.
On Twitter, French television man Pierre Lescure paid tribute to his “youthful and free beauty” while the writer Henry-Jean Servat hailed “the eternal adolescent of Italian cinema”.
Catherine Spaak…She left us in Rome where she mainly lived, after her French debut and despite the reluctance of her father, screenwriter Charles Spaak.
Her youthful and free beauty, her modernity made her successful in the 60s. Many in Italy. She was 77 years old. pic.twitter.com/y3evevPWVZ— Pierre Lescure (@pierrelescure) April 17, 2022
“Heroine of tangy comedies where her wild charm and her chubby pouts worked wonders, she embodies with pep the sparkling epic of the Dolce vita”he wrote.
In Italy, the Minister of Culture Dario Franceschini spoke “an eclectic, cultured and elegant artist who had found in our country a home that welcomed and loved her”.
Catherine Spaak had been married four times and had two children.