Claudia Cardinale is one of the greatest cinema icons of all time. She worked with some of the finest filmmakers and the handsomest actors in the ’60s and ’70s, including Marlon Brando, Alain Delon, Marcello Mastroianni and Jean-Paul Belmondo.
Cardinale, named in 2011 by the Los Angeles Times as among the 50 most beautiful women in film history, claimed during an interview:
“I want to tell you something very interesting. I was doing a film in America, in New York. Suddenly, knock, knock, knock. It was Marlon Brando. He said, ‘I’m an Aries, like you.’ Then he said, ‘We have to make love.’ I said, ‘No!’ But when I closed the door, I said, ‘I’m stupid!’”
Asked if she had a chance later to talk about that incident with Marlon, Cardinale laughed and answered, “No, because I’m stupid!”
“I did four movies with Marcello (Mastroianni),” she shared. “But I don’t know if I can say it. No, it’s too much. He was in love with me. But I never accepted.”
“She refused everyone,” said once her daughter. “Unfortunately, I came too late, because I would have said, ‘OK, that’s (Mastroianni) my father.’ And Marlon Brando, can you imagine? What a waste.”
“I have an incredible number of letters from fans,” Cardinale pointed out. “They want to be with me, to live with me (laughs).”
But Cardinale stressed, “I had only one. The father of my daughter”. A lucky man!