Lea Massari
Actor
Biography
Anna Maria Massetani better known as Lea Massari (30 June 1933 — 23 June 2025) was an Italian actress. When she was 22, she changed her name to Lea Massari after the death of her fiancé Leo. She studied architecture in Switzerland. Massari became a celebrity in art cinema for two roles, the missing girl Anna in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960), and as Clara, the mother of a sexually precocious 14-year-old boy named Laurent (Benoît Ferreux) in Louis Malle's Murmur of the Heart (1971). She worked in both Italian and French Cinema. Her career includes Sergio Leone's debut Il Colosso di Rodi, and international commercial films such as Les choses de la vie. She was a member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1975. She won Nastro d'Argento as Best Supporting Actress for her role in Francesco Rosi's Christ Stopped at Eboli.
Filmography
The Night Caller
as Norah Elmer 1975
The Things of Life
as Catherine Bérard 1970
Murmur of the Heart
as Clara Chevalier 1971
The Colossus of Rhodes
as Diala 1961
Indian Summer
as Monica 1972
A Difficult Life
as Elena Pavinato 1961
Christ Stopped at Eboli
as Luisa Levi 1979
The Meetings of Anna
as Anna's mother 1978
The Seventh Target
as Nelly 1984
The Four Days of Naples
as Maria 1962
The Silent One
as Maria 1973
Allonsanfan
as Charlotte 1974
The Camp Followers
as Toula 1965
The Unvanquished
as Dominique Servet 1964
And Hope to Die
as Sugar 1972
Made in Italy
as Monica (segment "1 'Usi e costumi', episode 3") 1965