Giulietta Masina

Giulia Anna Masina was born in Italy on 22 February 1921 and built a career that cinema historians would later call masterful. In 1954 she played Gelsomina in La Strada, a role that became her signature; three years later she was Cabiria in Nights of Cabiria, winning Best Actress at Cannes in 1957. Both films took the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, and both were described as inspired by her humanity. Critics compared her work to Chaplin's, and Chaplin himself said she was the actress who moved him most. She died on 23 March 1994.