Fellini’s muse and Italian film icon Sandra Milo dies at 90
Fellini’s muse and Italian film icon Sandra Milo dies at 90
FILE - Italian actress Sandra Milo poses during a photocall for the film “Un nemico che ti vuole bene” during the 71st Locarno International Film Festival, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018, in Locarno, Switzerland. Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and later became his muse, died Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, her family said. She was 90. (Alexandra Wey/Keystone via AP, File)
FILE - Actress Sandra Milo poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film ‘Dorogie Tovarischi (Dear Comrades)’ during the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and later became his muse, died Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, her family said. She was 90. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Actress Sandra Milo poses on the red carpet of the movie “Pavarotti”, at the Rome Film Fest, in Rome, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and later became his muse, died Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, her family said. She was 90. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE - Italian actress Sandra Milo poses during a photocall for the film “Un nemico che ti vuole bene” during the 71st Locarno International Film Festival, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018, in Locarno, Switzerland. Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and later became his muse, died Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, her family said. She was 90. (Alexandra Wey/Keystone via AP, File)
FILE - Italian actress Sandra Milo poses during a photocall for the film “Un nemico che ti vuole bene” during the 71st Locarno International Film Festival, Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2018, in Locarno, Switzerland. Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and later became his muse, died Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, her family said. She was 90. (Alexandra Wey/Keystone via AP, File)
FILE - Actress Sandra Milo poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film ‘Dorogie Tovarischi (Dear Comrades)’ during the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and later became his muse, died Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, her family said. She was 90. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Actress Sandra Milo poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film ‘Dorogie Tovarischi (Dear Comrades)’ during the 77th edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Monday, Sept. 7, 2020. Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and later became his muse, died Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, her family said. She was 90. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Actress Sandra Milo poses on the red carpet of the movie “Pavarotti”, at the Rome Film Fest, in Rome, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and later became his muse, died Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, her family said. She was 90. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
FILE - Actress Sandra Milo poses on the red carpet of the movie “Pavarotti”, at the Rome Film Fest, in Rome, Friday, Oct. 18, 2019. Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s 8½ and later became his muse, died Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, her family said. She was 90. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
Sandra Milo, an icon of Italian cinema who played a key role in Federico Fellini’s “8½” and later became his muse, died Monday, her family said. She was 90.
Milo, noted for her distinctive high-pitched voice, died in her sleep at home in Rome, surrounded by her family and beloved dogs Jim and Lady, according to a statement from the family carried by state-run RAI television.
“Ciao Diva!” the Venice Biennale posted on social media, calling Milo an “unforgettable and versatile” actor both in comedy and drama.
Born Elena Salvatrice Greco, Milo had her break in Roberto Rossellini’s 1959 film “Il generale Della Rovere (General Della Rovere).” She went onto star with some of the greats of Italy’s post-war film industry, including Alberto Sordi and Marcello Mastroianni, with whom she appeared in the Oscar-winning “8½.”
Milo played Carla, the mistress to Mastroianni’s film director Guido.
Fellini later cast her alongside his own wife in the 1965 film “Juliet of the Spirits.” Two decades later Milo recounted their 17-year secret love affair in her indirectly autobiographical book, “Caro Federico.”
Milo became a fixture on Italian television as a talk show host, and in 1990 was the victim of an on-air prank that went down in Italian television history as a tasteless precursor to reality TV’s “Punk’d.”
While Milo was hosting a talk show on RAI, a prankster called in and told her that her son, Ciro, had just been hospitalized after a serious car accident. Believing the caller, a terrified Milo fled the studio wailing “Ciro, Ciro!” only to subsequently learn that her son was fine and that she had been tricked.
She is survived by Ciro and her two other children, according to the statement carried by RAI.