Giulietta Masina

Giulia Anna "Giulietta" Masina (22 February 1921 – 23 March 1994) was an Italian film actress best known for her performances as Gelsomina in La Strada (1954) and Cabiria in Nights of Cabiria (1957), for which she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival. Cinema historian Peter Bondanella described Masina's work as "masterful" and "unforgettable",[1] and Charlie Chaplin, with whose work Masina's is often compared,[2][3][4] called her "the actress who moved him most". Both La Strada and Nights of Cabiria won Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and were described as having been "inspired" by Masina's "humanity".[5]