{{Short description|Italian actress (1922–1989)}} {{Infobox person | name = Olga Villi | image = Olga Villi nel film Una lettera all'alba (1948) (cropped).jpg | caption = Villi in ''Letter at Dawn'' (1948) | birth_name = Olga Villani | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1922|1|20}} | birth_place = Suzzara, Mantua, Italy | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1989|8|12|1922|1|20}} | death_place = Rapallo, Italy | occupation = Actress | years_active = 1943–1975 (film/television) }} '''Olga Villi''' (20 January 1922 – 12 August 1989), was an Italian model and actress.
== Life and career == Born in Suzzara, Mantua as '''Olga Villani''', Villi began to work, only twelve years old, as a saleswoman and seamstress at the Milanese fashion house Biki.<ref name=attr>{{cite book|last=Enrico Lancia, Roberto Poppi|title=Dizionario del cinema italiano - Le Attrici|date=2003 |publisher=Gremese Editore, 2003|isbn=888440214X|pages=36–37}}</ref>
A few years later her employer hired her as a model; noted by Macario, she was hired by him in 1942 for the rivista-operetta ''Il grillo al castello'', where she had to act, sing and dance.<ref name=attr/> Thanks to the success of the show Villi became one of the most quoted soubrettes of the period, working with Anna Magnani, Nino Taranto and Alberto Sordi, and in mid-1940s she also starred in several drama plays, working among others with Luchino Visconti, Alessandro Blasetti and Giorgio Strehler.<ref name=attr/><ref name=Due/>
Also active in films and on television, in 1967 Villi won a Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her performance in Pietro Germi's ''The Birds, the Bees and the Italians''.<ref name=premi>{{cite book|last=Enrico Lancia|title=I premi del cinema|year=1998 |publisher=Gremese Editore, 1998|isbn=88-7742-221-1|pages=233, 249}}</ref> After having announced her retirement in 1972, she came back on stage in 1984.<ref name=Due/>
She was married to the nobleman Raimondo Lanza di Trabia until his death in 1954.<ref name=attr/><ref>{{cite news|last=Tano Gullo|title=Lanza il principe irrequieto|url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/2007/01/03/lanza-il-principe-irrequieto.html|access-date=6 December 2013|newspaper=La Repubblica|date=3 January 2007}}</ref> Villi died after a long illness in Rapallo, where she lived for about thirty years.<ref name=Due>{{cite news|title=Due protagonisti dello spettacolo|url=http://ricerca.repubblica.it/repubblica/archivio/repubblica/1989/08/15/due-protagonisti-dello-spettacolo.html?ref=search|access-date=6 December 2013|newspaper=La Repubblica|date=15 August 1989}}</ref>
==Selected filmography== * ''Macario Against Zagomar'' (1944) * ''Christmas at Camp 119'' (1948) * ''Letter at Dawn'' (1948) * ''Yvonne of the Night'' (1949) * ''Four Red Roses'' (1952) * ''Half a Century of Song'' (1952) * ''Adriana Lecouvreur'' (1955) * ''Sex Quartet'' (1966) * ''The Birds, the Bees and the Italians'' (1966) * ''Il fischio al naso'' (1967)
== References == {{Reflist}} == External links == * {{IMDb name|0898352}} {{Nastro d'Argento Best supporting Actress}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Villi, Olga}} Category:Italian film actresses Category:Italian television actresses Category:1922 births Category:Actors from the Province of Mantua Category:Actresses from Lombardy Category:Italian stage actresses Category:Nastro d'Argento winners Category:1989 deaths Category:20th-century Italian actresses Category:People from Suzzara