Alida Valli

Alida Valli (31 May, 1921 – 22 April, 2006), sometimes simply credited as Valli, was an Italian actress. Valli was born in Pola, Istria, then part of Italy (now called Pula, Croatia), to parents who both had mixed ancestry. Her paternal grandfather was Luigi Altenburger, an Austrian-Italian from Trento and her paternal grandmother was Elisa Tomasi from Trento, a cousin of Ettore Tolomei. Valli's mother, Silvia Oberecker, was the daughter of the German-Austria Felix Oberecker from Laibach (now Ljubljana, Slovenia), her mother was Virginia della Martina from Pola, Istria (then part of Austria-Hungary). Valli's maternal granduncle, Rodolfo, was a close friend of Gabriele d'Annunzio. Valli was christened Alida Maria Laura von Altenburger, Baroness of Marckenstein and Frauenberg of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. At fifteen, she went to Rome, where she attended the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, a school for film actors and directors. At that time, she lived with her... full article at wikipedia