Edwige Fenech

Edwige Fenech (, ; born 24 December 1948) is a French-Italian actress and film producer. She is known as the star of a series of commedia sexy all'italiana and giallo films released predominantly through her 20-year career in the 1970s and 80s, which turned her into a sex symbol.

Early life Fenech was born in Bône, Constantine, French Algeria (now Annaba, Annaba Province, Algeria) to an Algerian father and an Italian mother from Ragusa, Sicily. Her parents divorced when she was a child, and Fenech was raised in Nice with her mother.

Career Fenech moved from Nice to Rome in 1967 for her first Italian film Samoa, Queen of the Jungle by Guido Malatesta. In 1968, she came under contract with Austrian director Franz Antel and from the late 1960s to early 1970s, she acted in various films of Antel (including his Frau Wirtin series) as well as that of Franz Marischka.

Fenech starred in many genres of cinema but her greatest commercial success came with commedia sexy all'italiana films, particularly including earlier works Ubalda, All Naked and Warm (1972) and Giovannona Long-Thigh (1973), as well as the following l'insegnante (school teacher), la soldatessa (soldier), la poliziotta (policewoman) series and other films that featured Fenech in stereotypical professions, which further bolstered Fenech's position as the most popular actress of the genre. She often paired with Carlo Giuffrè and later with Renzo Montagnani in commedia sexy films.

Fenech was also a regular in giallo films. Her works in this genre include The Seducers (1969), Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970), The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971), Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972), All the Colors of the Dark (1972), The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972), Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975), and Phantom of Death (1987).

Later career

In the 1980s, she became a television personality, typically appearing with Barbara Bouchet on a chat show on Italian television. After many years of work in movie production, she co-produced The Merchant of Venice (2004) with Al Pacino, and later accepted Eli Roth's offer to appear in another movie, Hostel: Part II (2007). Quentin Tarantino named the character of General Ed Fenech in Inglourious Basterds (2009) in her honour, and invited Fenech to the Italian premiere of his film.

Personal life

Fenech was married to Italian film producer Luciano Martino from 1971 to 1979.

In the mid-1990s, she was engaged to the Italian industrialist Luca di Montezemolo. Her son Edwin (born 1971) has worked at her production company and was the former CEO of Ferrari Asia-Pacific, Ferrari Greater China and Ferrari North America.

She considers herself Roman Catholic.

In popular culture The English metal band Cathedral wrote the song "Edwige's Eyes" on their album The Guessing Game as a tribute to the actress.

Filmography