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Maria Grazia Buccella

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Maria Grazia Buccella
Buccella in a publicity photograph, c. 1960
Born (1940-08-15) August 15, 1940 (age 84)
Milan, Kingdom of Italy
Occupations
  • Model
  • actress
Years active1951–2000
Beauty pageant titleholder
TitleMiss Italia 1959
Major
competition(s)		Miss Italia 1959
(Winner)
Miss Universe 1959
(Unplaced)
Buccella with Ugo Tognazzi in Sissignore (1969)
Buccella in Basta guardarla (1970)

Maria Grazia Buccella (born August 15, 1940) is an Italian actress, glamour model and beauty pageant titleholder who was crowned Miss Italia 1959 and represented her country at Miss Universe 1959.

Career

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Buccella won the Miss Trento, Miss Venice, and Miss Italy beauty pageants, and placed third in the Miss Europe 1959 competition.[1] She represented Italy in the 1959 Miss Universe contest held in Long Beach, California. When she failed to make the cut from the initial 81 contestants to the final 15, the voluptuous Buccella was quoted as saying, "The judges and I obviously disagree. Back home, the men would wait for most of these girls to gain some more weight. But I am not bitter. They are nice girls."[2]

She was busy throughout the 1960s in numerous Italian and European films. She screen tested for the role of Domino Derval in the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball.[3] (The role, originally an Italian woman named Dominetta Petacchi, went to French actress Claudine Auger).[4] That same year Buccella appeared in the Dino Risi-directed film Il Gaucho which starred Vittorio Gassman; Gentleman de Cocody, starring Jean Marais; The Secret Agents, starring Gassman and Henry Fonda; and the Dino DeLaurentiis production Menage All'Italiana.

Buccella appeared in the comedy anthology Love and Marriage (U.S. release 1966) in a story that presaged the film Indecent Proposal. New York Times film critic Howard Thompson wrote, "Lando Buzzanca as the proud and fiery husband and Maria Grazia Buccella as his dovelike bride are marvelous." Vittorio De Sica cast her as Miss Okra in the Peter Sellers farce film After the Fox, in which she flirted with Sellers while lip-synching dialog by Akim Tamiroff. In 1968 she won a Silver Ribbon award at the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists for Best Supporting Actress (Migliore Attrice Non Protagonista) in the film Ti ho sposato per allegria (released as I Married You for Fun).[5]

Buccella was featured on the cover of the July 1977 Italian edition of Playboy magazine. She retired from films in 1979, although she made two small appearances in the late 1980s and a final appearance in the 2000 television series Hotel Otello.[citation needed]

Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ New York Daily News. 08 Sep 1959: 118.
  2. ^ "Miss U.S.A. Passes First Beauty Test." Daily Boston Globe; Jul 24, 1959.
  3. ^ Variety. Jan. 27, 1965): 15.
  4. ^ Production notes for Thunderball — MI6.co.uk Archived 18 December 2007 at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Enrico Lancia (1998). I premi del cinema. Gremese Editore, 1998. ISBN 88-7742-221-1.
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