Trivia

Helen Mirren named Magnani as her acting idol and Burt Lancaster considered her the greatest actress with whom he ever worked.

Tennessee Williams, after meeting her, said, "I never saw a more beautiful woman, enormous eyes, skin the color of Devonshire cream.".

Magnani was inconsolable after learning she had terminal cancer. Her son Luca and director Roberto Rossellini, her one-time director and paramour, were at her bedside when she died at age 65 in 1973. She was laid to rest in the Rossellini family vault.

Tennessee Williams wrote the role of Serafina in his play, The Rose Tattoo, for Anna, but her English skills were too limited to appear in the 1951 Broadway production. Instead, Maureen Stapleton played the role to great acclaim.

Her friendship with Tennessee Williams was the subject of an Off-Broadway play in New York, Roman Nights, by Franco D'Alessandro, which starred Franca Barchiesi as Magnani and Roy Miller as Williams. A film adaptation is in the works.

Had an extremely tempestuous relationship with Roberto Rossellini beginning in 1944 and ended when he deserted her for Ingrid Bergman. She was known to have hurled crockery at him during their volatile times. In describing her, he reportedly stated that, "She was born carrying her liver in her teeth".

A well-known hypochondriac, she constantly kept a thermometer close by in order to check her temperature.

Convinced that she would never win the Oscar for The Rose Tattoo (1955), she did not attend the ceremony. The reporter who woke her out of a sound sleep in Rome to give her the news had a difficult time convincing her he was not kidding. "You're lying," Magnani supposedly said. "If this is a joke, I'll kill you!".

As Vittorio De Sica was very eager to work with her, he originally cast her as Cesira in Two Women (1960), with 25-year-old Sophia Loren playing her shy 13-year-old daughter, Rosetta. However Magnani felt that the age gap between Loren and her character was too big to be overlooked and suggested that she play Cesira instead, otherwise the film would have been unconvincing. Loren then went on to play Cesira (with 12-year-old Eleonora Brown in the role of Rosetta) and won an Academy Award for her performance.

Was extremely superstitious and claimed she was clairvoyant. She also smoked cigars.

Is one of three Italian actors to have won an Academy Award; the others are Sophia Loren and Roberto Benigni.

Tennessee Williams wrote his play "The Rose Tattoo" with Anna in mind. She was offered the lead role but turned down because she felt her command of the English language was not strong enough for the demanding role of Serafina Delle Rose. Maureen Stapleton was critically acclaimed for her stage role. However, Anna did accept the screen version when it was offered and won the Oscar, Golden Globe and New York Film Critics awards, among others.

Her beloved son Luca, the product of an affair with Italian matinée idol Massimo Serato, was a victim of infantile polio and was sent by his mother to a Swiss clinic for treatments. Although he could walk with braces, most of his life has been spent in a wheelchair. She was awarded Italy's Golden Violet Award as an exemplary mother for her devotion.

Sent to a convent school at the age of 7 where she learned French. She also was brought up musically, had a deep singing voice and could play the piano and guitar.

She was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6385 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on February 8, 1960.

Was the 44th actress to receive an Academy Award; she won the Best Actress Oscar for The Rose Tattoo (1955) at The 28th Annual Academy Awards (1956) on March 21, 1956.

Her 1933 marriage to director Goffredo Alessandrini ended in 1940 but it was not until 1950 that the marriage was annulled.

Is one of 13 Best Actress Oscar winners to have not accepted their Academy Award in person, Magnani's being for The Rose Tattoo (1955). The others are Katharine Hepburn, Joan Crawford, Judy Holliday, Vivien Leigh, Ingrid Bergman, Sophia Loren, Anne Bancroft, Patricia Neal, Elizabeth Taylor, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson and Ellen Burstyn.

Jean Renoir built his magical film The Golden Coach (1952) around her performance as the actress Camilla from the commedia dell'arte.

Grandmother of Italian actress Olivia Magnani.

Is one of 13 actresses to have won a Best Actress Oscar for playing a character who is pregnant at some point during the film, hers being for The Rose Tattoo (1955). The others are Helen Hayes for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931), Luise Rainer for The Good Earth (1937), Vivien Leigh for Gone with the Wind (1939), Ginger Rogers for Kitty Foyle (1940), Olivia de Havilland for To Each His Own (1946), Jane Wyman for Johnny Belinda (1948), Julie Christie for Darling (1965), Liza Minnelli for Cabaret (1972), Sissy Spacek for Coal Miner's Daughter (1980), Frances McDormand for Fargo (1996), and Jessica Chastain for The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021).