Franca Valeri

Italian actress, playwright, screenwriter, author, and theatre director, she received an Honorary David di Donatello Award on 8 May 2020 at age 99.

She survived the Holocaust in Milan with her non-Jewish mother thanks to a fake I.D., that made her become the illegitimate daughter of a certain Cecilia Pernetta from Pavia. Her father and brother were able to flee to Switzerland.

Franca Norsa adopted her surname Valeri in the 1950s as an homage to the French critic and poet, Paul Valéry.

Valeri started her career on the radio, where she created the characters "Signorina Cesira" and "Signora Cecioni", exhilarating sketches centering on the idiosyncrasies of 1950s Italy. She co-starred in important films, such as The Sign of Venus and Il vedovo, although most of her characters were supporting roles.

In the 1960s Valeri also frequently worked for Italian TV. Directed by Antonello Falqui, she starred in Studio Uno, Le divine and Sabato Sera.

In the 1980s and early 1990s she starred in a series of successful commercials for Pandoro Melegatti, which were well received and stretched over a number of years (Pandoro being a seasonal product tied to the Christmas holidays).

Despite old age and suffering Parkinson's disease, she remained very active on the Italian theatrical stage. Across the season 2005-2006 she performed her own monologue La Vedova di Socrate ("Socrate's Widow"). In January 2008, she played the role of "Solange" in Jean Genet's Le bonnes at Milan's Piccolo Teatro.

Franca Valeri turned 100 on 31 July 2020, and died nine days later, on 9 August 2020.