Isa Miranda - Actress (Hollywood classic era)

 

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Saturday 29, November 2025, 05:30.

Miranda in 1950s

Born Ines Isabella Sampietro

5 July 1905

Milan, Kingdom of Italy

Died 8 July 1982 (aged 77)

Rome, Italy

Occupation Actress

Years active 1933–1978

Spouse Alfredo Guarini (m. 1939; died 1981)​

Introduction:

Isa Miranda (born Ines Isabella Sampietro; 5 July 1905 – 8 July 1982) was an Italian actress with an international film career.

Biography:

Miranda was born Ines Isabella Sampietro in Milan, the daughter of a street car conductor. When she was 10 years old, she began working as an errand girl for a dressmaker. She later had jobs in a box factory and a handbag factory. When she was 15, she became a model, a job that provided enough income for her to learn bookkeeping and typing in night school. She worked as a typist while attending the Accademia dei Filodrammatici in Milan and trained as a stage actress. She went on to play bit parts in Italian films in Rome. She changed her name to Isa Miranda and success came with Max Ophüls' film La Signora di tutti (Everybody's Woman; 1934) in which she played Gaby Doriot, a famous film star and adventuress with whom men cannot help falling in love. This performance brought in its wake several film offers and a Hollywood contract with Paramount Pictures. There, billed as the "Italian Marlene Dietrich", she played femme fatale roles in films such as Hotel Imperial (1939) and Adventure in Diamonds (1940).

She returned to Italy soon after the outbreak of World War II and continued to act on stage and to make films. In 1949, she starred in René Clément's The Walls of Malapaga, which won an Academy Award for the most outstanding foreign language film of 1950, and for Miranda, the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Another success of that period was La Ronde (1950), also directed by Ophüls.

Her career took her to France, Germany and Britain, where she frequently appeared in TV films, including The Avengers. Other notable film appearances included Siamo donne (1953), a portmanteau film, in which Miranda shared the screen with Anna Magnani, Alida Valli and Ingrid Bergman; Summertime (1955), starring Katharine Hepburn; Gli Sbandati (1955); The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964); The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968); and Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974).

Miranda was married to the Italian director and producer Alfredo Guarini until his death in 1981. She died in Rome on 8 July 1982.

Selected filmography:

1930

The Haller Case (1933) - Badwoman

Cardinal Lambertini (1934) - Anna

Everybody's Woman (1934) - Gabriella Murge, alias Gaby Doriot

Tenebre (1934) - Vera

Creatures of the Night (1934) - Una gigolette

Red Passport (1935) - Maria Brunetti

Like the Leaves (1935) - Irene "Nennele" Rosani

The Love of the Maharaja (1936) - Mira Salviati

A Woman Between Two Worlds (1936) - Mina Salviati

Thou Art My Joy (1936) - Mary Hofer & Bianca Monti

The Man from Nowhere (1937) - Louise Paléari

The Former Mattia Pascal (1937) - Luisa Paleari

Scipio Africanus: The Defeat of Hannibal (1937) - Velia, a Roman woman

The Lie of Nina Petrovna (1937) - Nina Petrovna

Like the Leaves (1938) - Nennele

Hotel Imperial (1939) - Anna Warschawska

1940

Adventure in Diamonds (1940) - Felice Falcon

Senza cielo (1940) - Regina

A Woman Has Fallen (1941) - Dina

Document Z-3 (1942) - Sandra Morini

Malombra (1942) - Marina di Malombra

Zazà (1944) - Zazà

La carne e l'anima (1945) - Katrin detta "Stella"

My Widow and I (1945) - Maria, sua moglie

L'aventure commence demain (1948) - Clarence Holbane

The Walls of Malapaga (1949) - Marta Manfredini

1950

I'm in the Revue (1950) - Isa

Pact with the Devil (1950) - Marta Larocca

La Ronde (1950) - Charlotte, the Actress

Cameriera bella presenza offresi... (1951) - Angela Leonardi

The Seven Deadly Sins (1952) - Mme Alvaro (segment "Avarice et la colère, L' / Avarice and Anger")

Gli uomini non guardano il cielo (1952) - The countess

We, the Women (1953) - Isa (segment "Isa Miranda")

Before the Deluge (1954) - Madame Françoise Boussard

The Secret of Helene Marimon (1954) - Hélène Marimon

Rasputin (1954) - La tsarine Alexandra

Summertime (1955) - Signora Fiorini

The Abandoned (1955) - Contessa Luisa

Rommel's Treasure (1955) - Mrs. Fischer

I pinguini ci guardano (1956)

I colpevoli (1957) - Lucia Rossello

Arrivano i dollari! (1957) - Caterina Marchetti

A Kiss for a Killer (1957) - Betty Farnwell

Le secret du Chevalier d'Éon (1959) - La tzarine Elisabeth Petrovna

1960

Corruption (1963) - Signora Mattoli

The Empty Canvas (1963) - Cecilia's Mother

Hardi Pardaillan! (1964) - Catherine de Medicis

Dog Eat Dog (1964) - Madame Benoit

Do You Know This Voice? (1964) - Mrs. Marotta

The Yellow Rolls-Royce (1964) - Duchesse d'Angouleme

Una storia di notte (1964) - Peppino's wife

Un monde nouveau (1966) - Une sage-femme

Hell Is Empty (1967) - Isa Grant

Darling Caroline (1968) - La duchesse de Bussez

The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) - The Marchesa

L'assoluto naturale (1969) - Mother

La donna a una dimensione (1969) - Elena

1970

The Syndicate: A Death in the Family (1970) - Tenutaria bordello

Dorian Gray (1970) - Mrs. Ruxton

Roy Colt and Winchester Jack (1970) - Mammola / Violet

Un estate con sentimento (1970) - Sue's Mother

Marta (1971) - Elena

A Bay of Blood (1971) - Countess Federica Donati

Lo chiameremo Andrea (1972) - Teacher

The Night Porter (1974) - Countess Stein

I'll Take Her Like a father (1974) - Lorè

La lunga strada senza polvere (1977) - The wife

1980

Apocalisse di un terremoto (1982) - Madre di Ciro (final film role)

FILM STILLS

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