Claudia Cardinale

One of the most beautiful actresses in the history of cinema, Claudia Cardinale, is dead at 87. She began appearing in small roles in Italian films in the late '50s before rising to stardom in the '60s with the roles she's best remembered for to-day. She appeared in 8 1/2, The Leopard, and The Pink Panther all in 1963. Audiences were treated to her remarkable beauty and steely performances. There was always something tenacious about her.

These qualities served her well in the role she's most celebrated for these days, the lead in 1968's Once Upon a Time in the West. Sergio Leone's most operatic Spaghetti Western, it stars Cardinale as a prostitute from New Orleans who heads to the dusty western plains hoping for a new life with a new husband only to find her brittle dream shattered by the cruel hand of a villain. It's from the point of view of this profoundly stranded woman that we witness the battle between Leone's distilled extremes of good and bad men, Charles Bronson and Henry Fonda.

She continued to get work throughout the 70s and 80s and appeared in Werner Herzog's legendary Fitzcarraldo in 1982. She was always an indelible asset to any film.