Cucinotta, Maria Grazia

(1968-)

   Actress. The very image of the darkeyed, black-haired, and curvaceous Mediterranean beauty, Cucinotta began her acting career as one of the showgirls in Renzo Arbore's popular television variety show, Indietro tutta (All Behind, 1987-1988). Her first film experience was a small role in Enrico Oldoini's Vacanze di Natale 90 (Christmas Vacation '90, 1990). After more television work and a long line of commercials, including one directed by Ridley Scott in which she appeared with Gerard Depardieu, she came to international notice through the huge worldwide success of Michael Radford's Il postino (The Postman, 1994), in which she played the female lead. She subsequently played more substantial roles in Leonardo Pieraccioni's I laureati (Graduates, 1995) and Maurizio Ponzi's Italiani (Italians, 1996), as well as appearing in quite a number of international productions including Alex de la Iglesia's comic horror thriller, El dia de la bestia (The Day of the Beast, 1995), Michael Aptedt's James Bond adventure, The World Is Not Enough, and Alfonso Arau's black comedy, Picking Up the Pieces (2000). More recently she has also served as producer for the multistory film All the Invisible Children (2005).