DEL POGGIO, CARLA

(1925-)

(Born Maria Luisa Attanasio.) Actress. Still in her teens, Del Poggio studied acting for a year at theCentro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, during which she came to the notice ofVittorio De Sica, who immediately cast her as the spirited young schoolgirl inMaddalena zero in condotta(Maddalena, Zero for Conduct, 1940) and then in a similar role inUn garibaldino al convento(A Garibaldian in the Convent, 1942). In 1945 she met, and soon after married, directorAlberto Lattuada, who cast her in the role of the prostitute-sister of the protagonist of his gangster melodramaIl bandito(The Bandit, 1946). Del Poggio continued to take on dramatic roles in several of Lattuada's subsequent films,Senzapieta(Without Pity, 1948) andIl mulino del Po(The Mill on the Po, 1948), but reverted to a lighter vein inLuci del varieta(Variety Lights, 1951), which Lattuada coproduced and codirected withFederico Felliniand in which Del Poggio plays a pretty, aspiring stage actress who lures an infatuatedPeppino De Filippoaway from the plainerGiulietta Masina.

After strong performances inGiuseppe De Santis'sCaccia tragica(Tragic Hunt, 1947) andRoma ore 11(Rome 11:00, 1952), she also tried her hand at acting in stage revues, with a measure of success. However, her film career seemed to falter after this. She appeared in several minor French films and inCose da pazzi(Craziness, 1953), a rather lackluster comedy directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, before making what would be her last film for the silver screen, Hugo Fregonese'sI girovaghi(The Wanderers, 1956), where she shared top billing with Peter Ustinov. In the following years she appeared only in a small number of films made for televison, including a remake of the classicPiccolo mondo antico(Old-Fashioned World, 1957), and an Italian version ofDavid Copperfield(1965).