Catherine Spaak (born 3 April 1945) is a French-Italian actress and singer.
She was born Catherine Spaak in Boulogne-Billancourt, a western suburb of Paris, on 3 April 1945. Her father was the Belgian screenwriter Charles Spaak and her uncle, Paul-Henri Spaak, was a Belgian prime minister. She
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got her big break into acting in 1959
with a bit part in the film Le trou. When she moved to Italy later that year, her father introduced her to film director Alberto Lattuada, who cast her in his film I dolce inganni, which was released in cinemas in 1960.
with a bit part in the film Le trou. When she moved to Italy later that year, her father introduced her to film director Alberto Lattuada, who cast her in his film I dolce inganni, which was released in cinemas in 1960.
Further film roles followed, including Le puits aux trois vérités (Il pozzo delle tre verità), La voglia matta, Diciottenni al sole and, in her first lead part, L’amore difficile. She played a variety of adolescent, Lolita-type roles and became hugely popular.Her screen success, combined with her love of singing and playing the guitar, led, almost inevitably, to an offer of a recording contract. She signed with the Ricordi label in 1962.
Issued in 1963, the bilingual Tous les garçons et les filles (Quelli della mia età) – backed with J’ai jeté mon coeur (Ho scherzato con il cuore) – gave Hardy’s original a run for its money, reaching number seven in September 1963 and confirming Catherine as a new star. The perkier Prima di te, dopo di te consolidated her success when it made the top ten later that same month. She rounded off 1963 with another hit, Tu ridi di me (with another bilingual track, Mes amis, mes copains on the flip), and an album comprising her hits to date plus some new material.
Among her most notable film titles of the 1960’s are Circle of Love (1964, directed by Roger Vadim), The Man, the Woman and the Money (1965, starring Marcello Mastroianni), The Incredible Army of Brancaleone (1966, written by Age & Scarpelli), Adultery Italian Style (1966), Hotel (1967), the sex comedy The Libertine (1969), Diary of a Telephone Operator (1969, with Claudia Cardinale),
Her 1965 album, Noi siamo i giovani (whose title was taken from the chorus of L’esercito del surf) sold well, and contained further singles La nostra primavera, In un giardino and Ieri (her take on The Beatles’ Yesterday), though each failed to win over record buyers as convincingly as her earlier releases.After appearing opposite Rod Taylor in the US film Hotel in 1967, Catherine cut her first record in over a year – the lounge-tastic La notte è fatta per rubare, from the soundtrack of a film of the same name. From this point on, she went into the recording studio only sporadically.
Catherine continued to focus on her acting career for the remainder of the decade, cutting only the occasional record. In 1987, she began a 15-year run of the Harem TV talk show. By this time she had also moved into journalism, writing for Il corriere della sera, among other titles.More recently she competed in reality TV show "L'isola dei famosi" (Italian version of "Survivor") briefly in 2015 but dropped out citing safety concerns and said she would not risk her life for a game show. She is still continuing her acting, principally in the theatre.
(Edited from Ready Steady Girls.eu & IMDb)