- Born
- Died
- Birth nameElena Seracini Vitiello
- Francesca Bertini was undoubtedly one of the first divas of cinema, a lady not only on screen but also in real life. She made her film debut in La dea del mare (1907) and after that producers fought for her services. In 1921 she married European nobleman and banker Alfred Cartier. She tried her hand at directing films as well as acting in them and turned out two well-received efforts, Assunta Spina (1915) and Tosca (1918)). She made the transition from silent films to talkies, although her output slowed down considerably. Her final role was in Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 (1976).
A "diva" to the end, she died in a "grand hotel" in Rome, Italy, in 1985, receiving friends and fans on her deathbed in a sumptuous salon.- IMDb mini biography by: Volker Boehm (qv's & corrections by A. Nonymous)
- SpouseAlfred Cartier(September 1921 - March 7, 1959) (his death)
- Reputedly, in 1915 she earned $175,000-a record for the time; Mary Pickford wouldn't catch up until the following year.
- In 1982 the director Gianfranco Mingozzi directed a documentary about Bertini, L'ultima diva: Francesca Bertini (1982), an amazing, fascinating look at this larger than life figure from early Italian film and pre-Communist, pre-Fascist, pre-World War Italy.
- Born in Florence, she was daughter of a comic theatre actress.
- When her husband died, she moved back to Rome, where she would remain until her death.
- She was one of the most successful silent film stars in the first quarter of the twentieth-century.
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