Biography
Lea Massari was an Italian actress. Born Anna Maria Massatani in Rome on 30 June 1933, she adopted her professional name after the death of her fiancé Leo. She studied architecture in Switzerland and began her career in film in 1954.
Massari gained international recognition for her role as Anna in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'Avventura (1960). She appeared as Clara Chevalier in Louis Malle's Murmur of the Heart (1971) and as Luisa Levi in Francesco Rosi's Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979), for which she received the Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actress. She worked extensively in both Italian and French cinema, with other notable roles including those in The Colossus of Rhodes (1961) and The Things of Life (1970). She served on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975 and retired from acting around 1990. She died in Rome on 23 June 2025.
