Italian actress Daria Nicolodi dies at 70

Daria Nicolodi

 ROME – Italian cult actress and screenwriter Daria Nicolodi has died at the age of 70, her daughter Asia Argento announced in an Instagram post.

 “Rest in peace beloved mother. Now you can fly free with your great spirit and you won’t have to suffer anymore. I will try to go on for your beloved grandchildren and especially for you who would never want to see me so grieved,” said Asia, who broke the news on Thursday. “Although without you I feel the ground beneath my feet give way, and I feel I have lost my only true point of reference. I am close to all those who have known and loved you.”

 Nocolodi, who co-wrote Dario Argento’s classic Suspiria (1977), was romantically involved with the horror director during the 1970s and 1980s. Daughter Asia is the result of that union.

 Born in Florence in 1950, Nicolodi moved to Rome in the late 1960s. She made her film debut in 1970, in Francesco Rossi’s “Uomini Contro.”

 Her performance alongside Ugo Tognazzi and Gigi Proietti in political filmmaker Elio Petri’s “La proprietà non è più un furto” (1973) earned her a “Mario Gromo” award for best new actress.

 Nicolodi's first collaboration with Argento came when she scored the role of reporter Gianna Brezzi in his 1975 cult hit Profondo Rosso (Deep Red). The role marks the beginning of their romantic relationship, from which Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa, better known as Asia Argento, was born in 1975.

 The Daria-Dario partnership saw the release of the film Suspiria (1977), which owes its masterful script to the actress, thanks to the tales of black magic her grandmother recounted to her as a child. Nicolodi, who had been originally cast in the film, was forced to pull out due to an injury prior to the shoot.

 In the same year, she starred in “Shock” (also known to U.S. audiences as Beyond the Door II), the final film of Mario Bava, who is often dubbed the Master of Italian Horror.

 In 1980, Daria was cast in the highly successful Argento film, Inferno. This was followed by Tenebre (1982) and Phenomena (1984).

 While the Daria-Dario 10-year relationship ended in 1985, she returned to collaborate with her ex on the film Opera (1987). 

 Throughout her career Nicolodi moved just easily from the world of television to cinema to theatre.

 Shaun of the Dead director, Edgar Wright, paid tribute to the actress on Twitter.

 "RIP to the wonderful Daria Nicolodi, co-writer of Suspiria and truly magnetic star of Shock, Tenebrae, Phenomena, Opera and, my very favourite, Deep Red (Profondo Rosso)," Wright wrote.

 Nicolodi also had a daughter to sculptor Mario Ceroli. Born in 1973, Anna Ceroli died in a motorcycle accident at the age of 21.

 cc