Claudia Cardinale, star of ‘8½’ and ‘The Leopard,’ dies at 87

Acclaimed Italian actor Claudia Cardinale, who starred in some of the most celebrated European films of the 1960s and 1970s, has died, AFP reported Tuesday.

ROME — Acclaimed Italian actor Claudia Cardinale, who starred in some of the most celebrated European films of the 1960s and 1970s, has died, AFP reported Tuesday. She was 87.

She starred in more than 100 films and made-for-television productions, but she was best known for embodying youthful purity in Federico Fellini’s “8½,” in which she co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni in 1963.

Cardinale also won praise for her role as Angelica Sedara in Luchino Visconti’s award-winning screen adaption of the historical novel “The Leopard” that same year and a reformed prostitute in Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western “Once Upon a Time in the West” in 1968.

Cardinale on set for “Once Upon a Time in the West” in 1968.Silver Screen Collection / Getty ImagesShe died in Nemours, France, surrounded by her children, her agent Laurent Savry told AFP. Savry and his agency did not immediately return emailed requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Cardinale began her movie career at the age of 17 after winning a beauty contest in Tunisia, where she was born of Sicilian parents who had emigrated to North Africa. The contest brought her to the Venice Film Festival, where she came to the attention of the Italian movie industry.