Leonora Ruffo(1936-2007)

Elegant Italian leading lady of the 50's and 60's, born Bruna Bovi, the youngest of five siblings in Rome. As a youth she was noted for her prowess as a gymnast, a fact which contributed to her discovery for the screen by the director Pietro Francisci in 1952. Possessed of luminous eyes and a spirited personality, Leonora was rarely cast as anything other than eye-candy in spaghetti westerns or sword-and-sandal epics. A couple of exceptions stand out: first, her titular role as Balkis, La reine de Saba (1952) (co-starring Gino Cervi, as King Solomon); secondly, -- arguably her best performance -- as Sandra Rubini, wife of an irresponsible ne'er-do-well and inveterate womanizer (played by Franco Fabrizi) in Federico Fellini's masterpiece Les vitelloni (1953). She also romped through a couple of mildly diverting horror flics. As Gordon Scott's girlfriend she battled faceless robots and vampires in Maciste contre le fantôme (1961). In the off-beat Mario Bava offering Hercule contre les vampires (1961), she was held on the island of the Hesperides under the control of a demon (Christopher Lee at his menacing best). Leonora's sporadic career as a movie actress was done and dusted by 1961 and she retired from acting at the end of the decade.