Born on September 23, 1927, this future movie star was to arrive second at the 1947 Miss Italy Beauty Pageant. Oddly, she shared the Top 5 spaces with future actresses Lucia Bosé (who won the contest), Gina Lollobrigida, Silvana Mangano and Eleonora Rossi Drago.

She soon met and even married (in Brazil) director Riccardo Freda, who cast his gorgeous wife in many movies, as she played temptresses, princesses and assorted femmes fatales with equal ease in many exotic adventures. She was seen in many swords & sandals projects, alongside the inevitable pirate stories and the like.

Sometimes compared with Ava Gardner, Gianna Maria Canale is also remembered as Duchess Giselle du Grand, the main role in Freda’s I Vampiri, the first Italian horror film of the sound era. The project was actually completed by future fantasy specialist Mario Bava and features some blood experiments to keep Giselle alive.

Gianna Maria was also seen in Steve Reeves’ first Hercules movie, as the Queen of the Amazons, a role that was probably tailor-made for her. Many peplums followed but her career stopped in 1964. There’s a legend saying that she left her husband to have an affair with a hairdresser and consequently Freda banned all hair specialist from his sets! Another story tells that she suffered an accident that left her disfigured. She seemed to have left us for a better world early in 2009… but can even that be disputed?!?!