Home   >   Movie Stars   >   R   >   Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Rossellini

Isabella Rossellini was raised in Paris and Rome. At the age of 19, she moved to New York, where she became a translator and later a reporter for RAI-Italian Television. Her popular segments led to appearances as the New York correspondent for the weekly Italian comedy show The Other Sunday, with Roberto Benigni.

Her modeling career began when she was photographed by Bruce Weber for British Vogue and by Bill King for American Vogue. She has since worked with the industry's most distinguished photographers, including Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Helmut Newton, Peter Lindbergh, Norman Parkinson and Eve Arnold. She has appeared on the cover of such magazines as Vogue, Elle, Marie Claire, Bazaar and Vanity Fair. An exhibition of photographs of Rossellini, Portrait of a Woman was held in March 1988 at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

Rossellini made her cinematic debut in 1979 in Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Il Prato (The Meadow). Her American film debut was opposite Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines in Taylor Hackford's White Knights. In 1986, she starred opposite Dennis Hopper as Dorothy Vallens, the tortured lounge singer, in David Lynch's haunting and controversial Blue Velvet. She recently starred in The Feast of the Goat, Luis Llosa's screen adaptation of Mario Vargas Llosa's novel which screened at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival and HD Net Film's urban drama All Fall Down, opposite Anthony LaPaglia. In 2003, Rossellini starred in Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music In the World, an eccentric tale about a Depression-era contest to find the world's saddest music. She also starred in Dylan Kidd's critically acclaimed film, Roger Dodger opposite Campbell Scott. The previous year, she appeared in Empire, alongside John Leguizamo and Peter Sarsgaard.

Her other film credits include Cousins, Zelly and Me, Wild at Heart, Death Becomes Her, Fearless, Wyatt Earp, Big Night, The Imposters and The Funeral. Her portrait of the Jewish Hasidic mother in Left Luggage, directed by Jeroen Krabbe, won a special award at the Berlin Film Festival in 1998.

Rossellini most recently appeared on television in several episodes of ABC's Alias. She also starred in the television movie Monte Walsh for TNT opposite Tom Selleck and in Napoleon for A&E opposite Gerard Depardieu, John Malkovich and Sophia Loren. Her other television credits include Legend of Earthsea, Merlin, Don Quixote, The Odyssey, The Frightening Frammis, The Gift, Crime of the Century (Golden Globe nomination) and on the series Chicago Hope (Emmy nomination).

On stage, she made her American theater debut in Spring 2004 in Terrence McNally's off-Broadway play The Stendhal Syndrome.

In 1997, the George Eastman House (USA) honored Rossellini for her work in preserving the films of her parents, Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2006.
Read earlier biographies on this page.

Isabella Rossellini Facts

Birth NameIsabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini
OccupationActress
BirthdayJune 18, 1952 (71)
SignGemini
BirthplaceRome, Italy
Height5' 8" (1m73)  How tall is Isabella Rossellini compared to you?

Selected Filmography

Blue Velvet
Wyatt Earp
Death Becomes Her
Enemy
Big Night
Immortal Beloved
Blue Velvet Blu-ray
White Nights
Continue » Find more details on the Isabella Rossellini Movies page