Biography
Elsa Martinelli (3 August 1932 or 30 January 1935, according to different sources) was an Italian actress and former fashion model.
Born Elisa Tia in Grosseto, Tuscany, she moved to Rome with her family and in 1953 was discovered by Roberto Capucci who introduced her to the world of fashion. She became a model and began playing small roles in films. She appeared in Claude Autant-Lara's Le Rouge et le noir (1954), but her first important film role came the following year with The Indian Fighter opposite Kirk Douglas. Douglas claims to have spotted her on a magazine cover and hired her for his production company, Bryna Productions. In 1956 she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 6th Berlin International Film Festival for playing the title role in Mario Monicelli's Donatella.
From the mid 1950s through the late 1960s, she divided her time between Europe and the USA appearing films such as Four Girls in Town (1957) with George Nader, Manuela (1957) with Trevor Howard, Prisoner o