Edwige Fenech

Edwige Fenech (French: [ɛdviʒ fənɛʃ], Italian: [edˈviʒ feˈnɛk, - ˈfɛːnek]; born 24 December 1948) is a French-Italian actress and film producer. She is mostly 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 a Maltese 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.