Biography

Leading Italian actress of all media, born Lydia (or Lidia) Alfonsi in Parma, the daughter of well-to-do middle class parents. She briefly trained in accountancy before venturing on to the stage as a member of student amateur theatrical troupes. With "Gli amici della prose" she performed a play by Luigi Pirandello which won her a best actress competition in Pesaro. Having attracted the attention of one of the judges, the director Anton Giulio Bragaglia, Alfonsi was invited to join his company and duly made her professional theatrical debut in 1946. From 1950, she also appeared on screen, wrote and recited poetry, as well as writing and working in radio as a voice actress. Though acclaimed for her roles on the classical stage (including as Medea, Phaedra and Electra) she is probably best known abroad as a protagonist of peplum and swashbuckler films like Hercules (1958), Morgan the Pirate (1960) and The Trojan Horse (1961) (all starring muscleman Steve Reeves). Alfonsi also co-starred a

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Filmography