Elsa Martinelli Profile

Elsa Martinelli

	(Elsa Tia)
3 August 32	is born in Grosseto, Italy
c. 44	works as a grocery delivery girl at age 12 in Rome
c. 48	lands her first modeling job at age 16 in Rome
53	is discovered by designer Roberto Capucci while working as a barmaid
?	is discovered by a New York magazine editor in Rome, who suggests she try New York
53	goes to New York knowing no English and with only $20 and starts a modeling career
55	is brought to Hollywood by Kirk Douglas for the title role in his upcoming The Indian Fighter
April 56	is romantic duo with Syd Chaplin at the Luau
July 56	takes off for Italy; Chaplin follows her
August 56	Chaplin resumes with actress Dorothy Malone; Elsa stays in Italy
October 56	is seen handholding with fashion designer Oleg Cassini in New York
?	is off to London to star in Manuela. Her constant companion is Robert Haggiag, an independent producer.
December 56	asks for an adjustment in her contract with Kirk Douglas for his upcoming King Kelly. She says she doesn't want to make as many pictures as her deal with him calls for.
March 57	wealthy Prince Mancinelli is her new romantic interest. He flies to London to gift her with a sable coat.
April 57	is sentenced in Rome to 18 months in jail on three separate counts of insulting traffic officers when they tried to serve her a traffic ticket. She gets six months for each of the officers involved. Under Italian law, any sentence over one year cannot be suspended.
Early June 57	marries Count Franco Mancinelli Scotti di San Vito
	her mother-in-law, Countess Margherita Manicineli Scotti di San Vito, expels her son from their Rome palace because the marriage is against her wishes
?	they honeymoon in Hollywood
September 57	the mother of her husband, Count Mancinelli Scotti, plainly shows her disapproval at the time of the wedding. Finally she fires her son from his job as manager of the family estates.
October 57	is seen at El Morocco with her husband and actress Suzy Parker
58	her mother-in-law closes the palace gates against her and her new husband, Count Franco Mancinelli Scotti
Mid-58	her daughter, Christina, is born in Rome, Italy. She will become an actress.
7 November 58	attends a lavish party thrown at a Rome restaurant by Vanderbilt scion Peter Howard for Countess Olghina of Robilant to celebrate her 25th birthday. Among the guests are fellow actresses Anita Ekberg, Linda Christian, and Eleonora Rossi Drago. The event hits the newspapers because the police break up the party and charge Turkish dancer Alse Nur Nanah with "obscene acts in public."
February 59	meets director-producer Morton Da Costa, who wants her for his upcoming Broadway musical Saratoga Trunk, in Rome
?	her son is born
February 60	attends the Nastri d'Argento Awards at the Teatro Eliseo in Rome
21 July 60	gets her legal separation from Mancinelli Scotti in Rome after a three-year marriage. There is no divorce in Italy. Their daughter, Christina, will remain with her mother until she is 13 years old; she will then be under the care of her father until she is 18.
January 61	puts her movie-made money into real estate. She buys rundown houses and fixes them up for rentals. She has three in Paris and two in Rome.
May 61	expects her divorce from Mancinelli Scotti before autumn
July 62	is on the cover of Life
September 62	stops in New York on her way to Hollywood to dine at the Colony with her favorite beau, photographer Willy Rizzo
March 63	is joined on the international hotel scene in London by her boyfriend, photographer / cameraman Willy Rizzo
December 64	unable to get an Italian divorce, she tries a legal gambit in Switzerland as a last resort. If she doesn't succeed, she will change her citizenship. She and Rizzo plan to marry.
?	divorces Scotti
November 68	marries Rizzo in Paris
1 October 69	attends a birthday party thrown for his wife by U.S. producer Joseph E. Levine in Rome. About 2,000 guests eat their way through a 29-dish menu at a rented 17th-century Roman palace, entertained by three bands and guarded by medieval horsemen. The evening ends with the European continental premiere of Levine's A Lion in Winter. Maria Callas, Sophia Loren, Carlo Ponti, and Harold Robbins are among the guests.
February 70	makes the Paris nightclub scene with Greek shipping magnate, Aristotle Onassis. His wife, Jackie, is visiting her sister in Switzerland.
March 72	she and Rizzo suffer a modest disaster in their attempt to design avant-garde furniture in Paris
8 September 72	attends a party thrown by Onassis at the Athinea nightclub in seaside Nerida, Greece. Director Roberto Rossellini, Odile Rodin, widow of Porfirio Rubirosa, and Onassis' 23-year-old son Alexander are among the guests. Onassis' wife, Jackie, is reported to be in New York. The guests have a rousing time and literally cover the dance floor with broken plates. Deliberately breaking plates was banned by the army-backed Greek regime shortly after it seized power in 1967.
30 January 73	a letter bomb addressed to her is discovered by the Italian police. Fortunately the bomb catches fire at the Pisa railway station before delivery to her Rome address. Similar bombs were mailed to Italian actress Laura Antonelli and German screen star Solvi Stubing.
December 73	when Jackie Onassis sees a photo of her husband, Aristotle, sitting cheek-to-cheek with Elsa in a Paris cafe, she decides on a $100,000 face-lift
Summer 74	is frequently looked up in Paris by old friend Aristotle Onassis
80s	works as an interior designer in Rome
8 July 17	dies in Rome

Sources: www.IMDb.com, The New York Times, The Lima News, The Independent, Nevada State Journal, The Coshocton Tribune, Revue, The Hammond Times, Silver Screen, Appeal Democrat, Herald-Press, Tri-City Herald, Appleton Post-Crescent, The Lowell Sun, Weltstars ohne Huellen, News Journal - Mansfield, Nevada State Journal, The Odessa American, Ironwood Daily Globe, Burlington Times-News, Syracuse Herald-American, Indiana Evening Gazette, Bucks County Courier Times
Recommended Books:
Links: Filmography JSR Pages: Elsa Martinelli