Italian actress Laura Antonelli died at age 73 of a heart attack in her home in the seaside town of Ladispoli, near Rome, ANSA sources said on Monday. She appeared in over 40 films in between the 1960s and early 1990s, winning popularity first in erotic movies and then in auteur pictures.
She was also involved in a long and successful battle to clear her name after being convicted of drugs offences.
Antonelli, whose real name was Laura Antonaz, was born in 1941 in the then Italian province of Istria, now Croatia.
She was best known for her role in the 1973 film Malizia, directed by Salvatore Samperi, for which she won the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Award, the Nastro d'Argento, for Best Actress.
Her last film - Malizia 2000, in which she reunited with director Samperi - came in 1991, when her star descended rapidly following her arrest after police found cocaine in her home.
Her conviction for drug possession and dealing was eventually overturned by the Italian Court of Appeals in 2006.
She died alone after having long since left the public scene, with actor Lino Banfi one of her few public supporters in the industry.
"Her death saddens me enormously and I am still anguished that I didn't help her enough. An actress that beautiful and talented shouldn't have ended like this," Banfi told ANSA on Monday.
Antonelli will be buried in Ladispoli, most likely after Friday pending arrival of her brother Claudio from Canada, said Roberto Ussia, Ladispoli's councillor for social services.
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