- Born
- Birth nameMaria Luisa Lucia Allasio
- Nickname
- The Italian Jayne Mansfield
- She was born Maria Luisa Lucia Allasio, the daughter of Lucia Rocchietti and Federico Allasio, a successful football player (for Genoa and Torino) and latterly coach (of Bologna, Lazio and Cagliari). Educated in Genoa, Maria won a beauty pageant ("Miss Lido") at the age of fourteen. This did not go unnoticed in the press and magazines published pin-ups of her, which led to the girl pushing her parents to enrol her in Rome's Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica. Discovered there by the producer/director Carlo Ponti, she appeared on the screen from 1952 and had a leading role in the crime drama Cuore di mamma (1954), now billed as Marisa Allasio. Blonde and well-proportioned, she was soon touted as the 'Italian Jayne Mansfield', though her screen personae rarely strayed from the straight and narrow. In Italy, she became popular as Anna in Luigi Zampa's Ragazze d'oggi (1955) and as Giovanna in Dino Risi's Belle ma povere (1957), both romantic comedies. Marisa gained some international exposure through her appearance in Seven Hills of Rome (1957), starring the opera singer Mario Lanza.
Her career ended abruptly upon her marriage to Count Pier Francesco Vittorio Maria Agostino Luca Frediano Calvi di Bergolo, nephew of the former King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy, on November 10 1958. As a bona fide countess, she resided in the Piedmontese Castle of Pomaro Monferrato. In a 1985 interview, she confessed that her sole regret was having spurned the role of Angelica Sedara in The Leopard (1963). offered her by director Luchino Visconti (it went to Claudia Cardinale instead).- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
- SpousePier Francesco Vittorio Maria Agostino Luca Frediano Calvi di Bergolo(November 10, 1958 - June 18, 2012) (his death, 2 children)
- Her husband is Conte Calvi and 7.th Conte di Bèrgolo, Head of the Calvi di Bèrgolo Family, since 1977. They married in Serralunga di Crea. His mother was a daughter of H.R.M. King Victor Emmanuel III, King of Italy, King of Albania and Emperor of Ethiopia, and H.R.H. Helen Petrovic-Njegos of Montenegro, Princess of Montenegro.
- Was on the cover of Modern Man Quarterly Fall 1957.
- Has two children, Carlo Giorgio Dimitri Drago Pero Danilo Maria (b. Rome, 10 July 1959, unmarried) and Anda Federica Angelica Maria (b. Rome, 11 March 1962, married 29 Sep 1994 Nobile Alvise Cicogna, b. at Treviso 8 Feb 1958).
- Daughter of Federico Allasio, midfielder of the Torino soccer team and coach of many Italian soccer teams, and his wife Lucia Rocchietti.
- Her husband was the grandson of King Victor Emmanuel III and Helen Petrovic-Njegos of Montenegro.
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