Regina Bianchi

Regina Bianchi (1 January 1921 – 5 April 2013) was an Italian stage and film actress.

Born in Lecce as Regina D'Antigny, she was the daughter of two theatre actors. Forced by the fascist phobia of foreign cultures to change her surname, she adopted the surname of her paternal grandmother.

At age 16, she entered the stage company of Raffaele Viviani and, that year, debuted in the comedy play Campagna napoletana, in the leading role of Reginella. In 1939, she starred in the drama film Il ponte di vetro; on the film set she became engaged to the director Goffredo Alessandrini, who remained her partner for over 20 years.

After having announced her retirement in 1944, she came back in 1959 with the title role in Eduardo De Filippo's Filumena Marturano. She won two Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actress, in 1963 for Nanni Loy's The Four Days of Naples, and in 1996 for Leone Pompucci's Camerieri, and she appeared as Anna, the mother of Mary, in Franco Zeffirelli's television miniseries Jesus of Nazareth in 1977.

In 1996, she was awarded Grand Officer of the Italian Republic for artistic merits. She died at 92 in her home in Rome.