---
name: "Sonia Gessner"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/sonia-gessner"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "2 December 1938"
died: "14 April 2026"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 3
average_fi1m_score: 74
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-17T08:13:41.141152+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Sonia Gessner

Actor. Born 2 December 1938 in Milan, Italy. Died 14 April 2026.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 2 December 1938, Milan, Italy
- **Died:** 14 April 2026
- **Active:** 2013–2015
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 3: 2 acting, 1 other
- **Average Fi1m score:** 74, as actor, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 86 (1), 2010s 74 (2)
- **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q95699149, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0315172/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/1139379

## Streaming the US now

- **HBO Max:** [*The Great Beauty*](https://film.one/film/the-great-beauty.md) (83)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Biography

Sonia Gessner (24 December 1938 – 14 April 2026) was a Swiss-Italian actress. She began working in theatre in the early 1960s at the Teatro Stabile di Trieste and appeared in films from 1961. She performed in productions directed by Federico Fellini, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, Gianni Amelio and others.

Gessner is known for her role as Contessa Colonna in Paolo Sorrentino’s *The Great Beauty* (2013). Other screen credits include an appearance in Fellini’s *8½* (1963), Melanie in *Youth* (2015), and roles in *Night Sun* (1990) and *Perdiamoci di vista* (1994). She also worked extensively in Italian television.

*Sources: imdb.com, it.wikipedia.org, en.wikipedia.org.*

## On Fi1m (3)

### Performed in (2) — the average rests on these

- *Youth* (2015), Fi1m 66, as Melanie — [page](https://film.one/film/youth-2015.md)
- *The Great Beauty* (2013), Fi1m 83, as Contessa Colonna — [page](https://film.one/film/the-great-beauty.md)

### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *8½* (1963), Fi1m 86, as (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/812.md)

## Also known for

- *Perdiamoci di vista* (1994), Magda Roversi
- *Ears* (2016), Vicina

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/sonia-gessner