Catherine Spaak

Family A member of the prominent Spaak family, Catherine was the daughter of Belgian screenwriter Charles Spaak and French actress Claudie Clèves (née Alice Perrier). Her older sister was actress Agnès Spaak. Her uncle, politician Paul-Henri Spaak, was the Prime Minister of Belgium from 1947 to 1949 and one of the founding fathers of the European Union. Her paternal grandmother was Marie Janson Spaak, Belgium's first female member of Parliament.

Early life Spaak was born on 3 April 1945 just outside of Paris in Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine. Initially she wanted to be a ballerina and studied ballet in her youth, until she gave it up after being told she was too tall.

Spaak was inspired to be an actress when in the summer of 1955, she accompanied her father to a film set, where she saw Gina Lollobrigida. In response to her parents announcing that they were divorcing and eager to leave the boarding school, Spaak left home at the age of 15 and moved to Italy, where she settled

Career

Actress Spaak's first role was in the French 13-minute short L'hiver (1959), directed by Jacques Gautier, which was followed by a brief uncredited role in the French prison break film Le Trou (1960), which was directed by Jacques Becker. Spaak's brief appearance in Le Trou caught the eye of a Paris television reporter, and his subsequent interview with her was seen by Sophia Loren who thought that Spaak would be suitable for a major role in Sweet Deceptions, a film that her producer husband Carlo Ponti was intending to make in Rome. Released in 1960, Spaak's role as a 17-year-old student who has an affair with a middle-aged man brought her to attention of the wider public. For Love and Gold (1966, written by Age & Scarpelli), Adultery Italian Style (1966). Her first film role in an American production was as the mistress of an investor who wants to buy a landmark New Orleans hotel in the 1967 release Hotel.

Following her divorce from Capucci in 1971, Spaak was married from August 1972 to 1979 to Italian entertainer Johnny Dorelli with whom she had a son, Gabriele Guidi.

Spaak was a convert to Buddhism. She was also vegetarian and an animal rights activist.

Death Spaak died in Rome on 17 April 2022 at the age of 77, a year after suffering a brain hemorrhage.

Partial filmography

L'hiver (1959) The Hole (1960) Sweet Deceptions (1960) Il carro armato dell'8 settembre (1960) Crazy Desire (1961) Three Faces of Sin (1961) Il Sorpasso (1962) Of Wayward Love (1962) Eighteen in the Sun (1962) The Girl from Parma (1963) The Empty Canvas (1963) The Warm Life (1963) Three Nights of Love (1964) Weekend at Dunkirk (1964) Circle of Love (1964) Made in Italy (1965) The Man, the Woman and the Money (1965) For Love and Gold (1965) Break Up (1965) Madamigella di Maupin (1966) Adultery Italian Style (1966) Hotel (1967) A Complicated Girl (1968) The Libertine (1968) If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) Diary of a Telephone Operator (1969) The Cat o' Nine Tails (1971) Ripped Off (1972) Cause of Divorce (1972) Story of a Cloistered Nun (1973) Dear Parents (1973) My Darling Slave (1973) La via dei babbuini (1974) Take a Hard Ride (1975) Febbre da cavallo (1976) Per vivere meglio, divertitevi con noi (1978) Catherine and I (1980) Sunday Lovers (1980) The Precarious Bank Teller (1980) Honey (1981) Claretta (1984) Secret Scandal (1989) Une famille formidable (TV, 1993) I Can See It in Your Eyes (2004) Alice (2010) Zen (TV, 2011) La vacanza (2019, final film role)