Maria Fiore

After an impressive debut at the young age of 17 in Castellani's neo-realistic masterpiece "Due soldi di speranza" (playing Carmela, a young unemployed man's fiancée) she disappointed art film lovers (but not the average Italian spectator) in starring - throughout the fifties and in the early sixties - in a great number of popular flicks, often musicals set in Naples. She disappeared from the big screen in the mid-sixties to concentrate on the the dubbing firm she had set up. Maria Fiore returned to popular success through hit TV mini-series such as "Quei 36 gradini" (1984),"Little Roma" ('88) and "Pronto Soccorso" ('90-'92). She died of lung cancer aged 68.