Eleonora Giorgi died at 71, she had pancreatic cancer

Eleonora Giorgi has died. The actress, 71, was taken away by pancreatic cancer , which had reached the final stage with metastases to the brain.

A disease he had talked about a lot , since it arose in October 2023, "to encourage us to live without wasting our time on jealousies, anxieties and useless frustrations" , he had explained.

Eleonora Giorgi was hospitalized in a Roman clinic, the Paideia: with the worsening of her conditions which, she had reported, made it "impossible for her to even take ten steps", she was undergoing pain therapy . "My soul is ready", she said on that occasion, "I am taking care of myself only for my children".

The family announced that "this morning Eleonora Giorgi passed away peacefully in the love and embrace of her children and loved ones ."

Her sons Andrea and Paolo, her ex-husband Massimo Ciavarro, were close to her. And to support her there was also the great love for her grandson Gabriele, son of Paolo Ciavarro and Clizia Incorvaia. In these difficult months Eleonora Giorgi never lost her smile and desire to live , she also demonstrated it by talking about her illness.

WHO WAS

Eleonora Giorgi was born in Rome on 21 October 1953 , but she had foreign blood in her veins (English on her father's side, Hungarian thanks to her mother) and this mix of rigour and passion was always reflected in her private and professional life.

The influence of the set designer Giulia Mafai (her father's second partner) was decisive since she was catapulted onto the set by chance after a few photo shoots and a couple of films without credit. Tonino Cervi called her and produced Storia di una monaca di clausura in 1973 and she had a leading role for her alongside Catherine Spaak . It is a popular tale with some erotic undertones but for the free and bold nineteen year old girl, who grew up during the protests of '68, cinema is a great game that attracts. Especially if, as happens to Eleonora, it is preceded by an appearance in Rome near the maestro Fellini. At the beginning the directors dub her, but little by little her raspy and sensual voice will become an unmistakable trait of her character.

Blonde, blue eyes, Lolita-like movements and an easy display of her beauty (she will soon have an entire feature on Playboy Italy), the fresh-faced girl meets her friend/rival Ornella Muti the following year in Appassionata and in the same year 1974 she becomes a successful model with four films always linked to a pink and elegant eroticism.

In the same year a deep pain (the death of her boyfriend Alessandro Momo on a motorbike he borrowed from her) suddenly marks her life. She enters the tunnel of heroin, experiences depression, takes refuge in the radio, disappears from the screen.

At twenty, Eleonora Giorgi is already a woman full of experiences, not all of them happy. Alberto Lattuada comes to her aid and, trusting in the judgment of the best directors who have trained her (Salce and Samperi first and foremost), calls her in '75 for Heart of a Dog from the novel by Bulgakov with Max von Sydow and Cochi Ponzoni as partners. Surprisingly for Eleonora it is like a second beginning: from that moment on, prestigious opportunities follow one another, once again according to an artistic destiny that unites them with Ornella Muti, two years younger.

Eleonora worked with Giuliano Montaldo (Agnese goes to die), Damiano Damiani (A man on his knees), Dario Argento (Inferno), Franco Brusati (Forgetting Venice), Liliana Cavani, thanks to whom she met her most loved and respected stage partner, Marcello Mastroianni, in 1982 for Beyond the Door.

In the meantime, however, Giorgi has discovered her comic side, a lightness that makes her the ideal partner for Celentano (Velvet Hands) and Renato Pozzetto (My Wife is a Witch). This turning point is crowned by her meeting with Carlo Verdone who in Borotalco (1982) makes her his enchanted muse and will find her again years later in Compagni di scuola. It will be, for almost twenty years, her last appearance at the cinema.

Instead, he confirmed his popularity on TV, from Yesterday to Cesaroni. In the meantime, in the 2000s, he chose to direct Ornella Muti in Uomini & donne, amori & bugie (his first direction in 2003) and then to tell the confused adolescence of the new times in L'ultima estate in 2009. The laurels instead had all arrived for Borotalco with the David statuette, the Nastro d'argento and the award at the Montreal festival.

The events of her private life play an important role in her artistic choices. After her marriage in 1979 to Angelo Rizzoli (from whom her firstborn Andrea was born), the judicial earthquake involving her husband in the early 80s will mark the end of the marriage but also a deep discomfort in Eleonora who chooses silence, thins out her artistic activity, and favors life with her son.

On the set of Sapore di mare 2 (1983) she will then meet Massimo Ciavarro, husband, friend, producer at the same time, and she and Paolo's father. Despite some other flirtations (the famous one with Warren Beatty recounted in her autobiography Nei panni di un'altra) and the long relationship with Andrea De Carlo, Ciavarro remained Eleonora Giorgi's lifelong companion, by her side until the end.

Giorgi of the 2000s embraces entertainment TV programs, between a Miss Italia jury, a very self-deprecating Dancing with the Stars and Big Brother VIP.

(Online Union)