Lea Massari
Biography
Anna Maria Massetani better known as Lea Massari (30 June 1933 — 23 June 2025) was an Italian actress. When she was 22, she changed her name to Lea Massari after the death of her fiancé Leo. She studied architecture in Switzerland. Massari became a celebrity in art cinema for two roles, the missing girl Anna in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960), and as Clara, the mother of a sexually precocious 14-year-old boy named Laurent (Benoît Ferreux) in Louis Malle's Murmur of the Heart (1971). She worked in both Italian and French Cinema. Her career includes Sergio Leone's debut Il Colosso di Rodi, and international commercial films such as Les choses de la vie. She was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975. She won Nastro d'Argento as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Francesco Rosi's Christ Stopped at Eboli.
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Full filmography
- Spécial cinéma (1974) as Self
- Les Rendez-vous du dimanche (1975) as Self
- Midi Première (1975) as Self
- Midi trente (1972) as Self
- Murmur of the Heart (1971) as Clara Chevalier
- Indian Summer (1972) as Monica
- The Night Caller (1975) as Norah Elmer
- L'Avventura (1960) as Anna
- The Things of Life (1970) as Catherine Bérard
- The Colossus of Rhodes (1961) as Diala
- The Brothers Karamazov (1969) as Agrafena Aleksàndrovna
- And Hope to Die (1972) as Sugar
- A Dog Called... Vengeance (1977) as Muriel
- Anna Karenina (1974) as Anna Karenina
- The Meetings of Anna (1978) as Anna's mother
- Conquered City (1962) as Lelia Mendores
- The Seventh Target (1984) as Nelly
- The Camp Followers (1965) as Toula
- The Silent One (1973) as Maria
- Weeping for a Bandit (1964) as María Jerónima
- Made in Italy (1965) as Monica (segment "1 'Usi e costumi', episode 3")
- Violette & Francois (1977) as Cécile Levene
- Allonsanfan (1974) as Charlotte
- Secrets Secrets (1985) as Marta