Real Name : Nadia Kujnir-Herescu
Birth : 23 November 1923, Bucharest, Romania
Death : 13 June 1994, New York City, New York, USA (stroke)
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Born Nadia Kujnir-Herescu in Bucharest, Romania, on November 23, 1923, to a Russian father and a Bessarabian mother, the future actress Nadia Gray was raised there. She met first husband Constantin Cantacuzino (1905-1958), a Romanian aviator and noted WWII fighter ace, while she was a passenger on one of his commercial air flights. She couple fled the country during the Communist takeover of Romania in the late 1940s and emigrated to Paris. There Nadia enjoyed a vast international career as a Cosmopolitan lead and second lead on stage and in films. The couple eventually settled in Spain. She made her film debut in a leading role as a young waitress who yearns to be a star in the French-Austrian co-production of _L'inconnu d'un soir (1949)_ (qv) and went on to essay a number of more mature, sophisticated, glamorous patricians in European films, often a continental jetsetter or bourgeoisie type. Earlier roles that led to European stardom included her countess in _Monseigneur (1949)_ (qv), the woman in love with a thief in _The Spider and the Fly (1949)_ (qv), and the role of Cristina Versini in the Italian technicolor biopic of the composer _Puccini (1952)_. Her roster of continental male co-stars went on to include such legendary stalwarts as 'Marcello Mastroianni' (qv), 'Vittorio de Sica', 'Rossano Brazzi' (qv), 'Errol Flynn (I)' (qv), 'Maurice Ronet' (qv) and 'Gabriele Ferzetti' (qv). Among her scattered appearances in English-speaking productions were a mixture of adventures, dramas, comedies and horrors including _Valley of Eagles (1951)_ (qv) with 'John McCallum (I)' (qv) and 'Jack Warner (I)' (qv), _Night Without Stars (1951)_ (qv) opposite 'David Farrar (I)' (qv), _The Captain's Table (1959)_ (qv) starring 'John Gregson (I)' (qv) and 'Donald Sinden' (qv), _Mr. Topaze (1961)_ (qv) starring 'Peter Sellers' (qv), _Maniac (1963)_ (qv) co-starring 'Kerwin Mathews' (qv), _The Naked Runner (1967)_ (qv) starring 'Frank Sinatra' (qv) and a supporting role in the classic 'Albert Finney' (qv)/'Audrey Hepburn' (qv) romance _Two for the Road (1967)_ (qv). Nadia is most famous, however, for her cameo role toward the end of 'Federico Fellini' (qv)'s masterpiece _La dolce vita (1960)_ (qv) as a bored and wealthy socialite who celebrates her divorce by performing a memorable mink-coated striptease during a jaded party sequence in her home. Following the death of her first husband in Spain in 1958 (he was only 52), Nadia continued to film and settled permanently in America in the late 60s after meeting and marrying second husband Herbert Silverman, a New York lawyer. She retired from films completely in 1976 and began headlining as a singing cabaret star. The trend-setting Russian-Romanian beauty died of a stroke in Manhattan on June 13, 1994 at age 70 and was survived by her second husband and two stepchildren.
Biography written by: Gary Brumburgh / gr-home@pacbell.net
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- Agguato sul mare (1955) [Circe] <3>
- Begegnung in Salzburg (1964) [Felicitas Wilke] <2>
- Candide ou l'optimisme au XXe siècle (1960) [La dame de compagnie/Dame] <13>
- Carosello napoletano (1954) [Pretty tramp] <21>
- Casa Ricordi (1954) [Giulia Grisi] <9>
- Casta diva (1956) [Giuditta Pasta] <2>
- Cento anni d'amore (1954) [Muriella di Lucoli (segment "Pendolin")] <10>
- Die Fledermaus (1959) (TV) [Rosalinde] <2>
- Estate violenta (1959) <12>
- Finalmente libero! (1953) [Carla] <2>
- Folies-Bergère (1956) [Suzy Morgan] <3>
- Gioventù di notte (1961) [Fulvia] <8>
- Gli ultimi cinque minuti (1955) [Valeria Roberti, moglie di Filippo] <5>
- Gran varietà (1954)
- Hengst Maestoso Austria (1956) [Gräfin Marika Szilady] <1>
- I cinque dell'adamello (1954)
- Il cardinale Lambertini (1954) [Isabella di Pietramelara] <2>
- Il diavolo nero (1957) <3>
- Il falco d'oro (1955) [Ines della Torre] <3>
- Il maestro di Don Giovanni (1954) [Fulvia] <3>
- Il microfono è vostro (1951) <9>
- Inganno (1952) [Anna Comin] <2>
- Ivan (il figlio del diavolo bianco) (1953) [Principessa Alina] <2>
- L'avventuriero della tortuga (1965) [Dona Rosita] <4>
- L'inconnu d'un soir (1949) [Édith aka Marie-Ange] <2>
- L'éventail de Lady Windermere (1961) (TV) [Mrs. Erlynne] <2>
- La città canora (1952) [Nadia Sandor] <3>
- La dolce vita (1960) [Nadia] <29>
- La moglie è uguale per tutti (1955) [Cristina Ferretti] <2>
- La vierge du Rhin (1953) [Maria Meister] <8>
- Le avventure di Giacomo Casanova (1955) [Teresa] <4>
- Le due orfanelle (1954) [Contessa de Linières] <14>
- Le jeu de la vérité (1961) [Solange Vérate] <5>
- Le pavé de Paris (1961) [Monique] <5>
- Le plus vieux métier du monde (1967) [Nadia (segment "Aujourd'hui")] <16>
- Le signore (1960) <2>
- Les croulants se portent bien (1961) [Thérèse] <3>
- Les femmes s'en balancent (1954) [Henietta Aymes] <2>
- Letto a tre piazze (1960) [Amalia] <3>
- Maniac (1963) [Eve Beynat] <2>
- María, matrícula de Bilbao (1960) <3>
- Meine schöne Mama (1958) [Mathildes Mutter Maria] <3>
- Moglie per una notte (1952) [Geraldine] <3>
- Monseigneur (1949) [La duchesse de Lémoncourt] <14>
- Mourir d'amour (1961) [Patricia] <2>
- Mr. Topaze (1961) [Suzy] <2>
- Muerte al amanecer (1959) [Victoria Costa]
- Musik im Blut (1955) [Gina Martelli] <2>
- Night Without Stars (1951) [Alix Delaisse nee Malinay] <2>
- Parola di ladro (1957) <3>
- Pietà per chi cade (1954) [Anna Savelli] <3>
- Puccini (1953) [Cristina Vernini] <3>
- Remembering Jean Gabin (1978) (TV) [Herself - Host]
- Rocambole (1963) [Comtesse] <3>
- Sénéchal le magnifique (1957) [La princesse Marida Ludibescu] <2>
- The Captain's Table (1959) [Mrs. Porteous] <4>
- The Crooked Road (1965) [Cosima] <3>
- The Naked Runner (1967) [Karen] <4>
- The Prisoner Video Companion (1990) (V) (archive footage)
- The Spider and the Fly (1949) [Madeleine Saincaize] <3>
- Top Secret (1952) [Tania Ivanova] <3>
- Two for the Road (1967) [Francoise Dalbret] <7>
- Une parisienne (1957) [Quenn Greta/La reine Greta] <17>
- Vacanze a Ischia (1957) [Carla Occhipinti] <4>
- Valley of Eagles (1951) [Kara Niemann] <2>
- Wenn beide schuldig werden (1962) [Hilde Goetz] <1>
- Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand (1966) [Michèle Mercier] <6>
- Zwei Whisky und ein Sofa (1963) (as Nadja Grey) [Mrs. Button] <3>
- "Court Martial" (1965) {Logistics of Survival (#1.7)} [Magda Keller]
- "Illusions perdues" (1966) [La marquise d'Espard] <16>
- "The Prisoner" (1967) {The Chimes of Big Ben (#1.1)} [Nadia Rokovsky, Number 8] <3>
- "The Third Man" (1959) {A Deal in Oils (#2.13)} [Simone]
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- 'Constantin Cantacuzino' (1946 - 26 May 1958) (his death)
- 'Herbert Silverman' (1967 - 13 June 1994) (her death)
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- "Parade" (UK), 11 March 1961, Iss. 1109
- "Novella" (Italy), 21 November 1954
- "Mein Film" (Austria), 8 August 1952, Vol. 22, Iss. 23
- "Photoplay" (UK), April 1951
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- "I really cut my bridges in film and being always the star, it would be very difficult for me to start at this point in my life to play small roles." - on why she didn't return to films in the late 70s
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- When a child she was such an enthusiastic admirer of King Carol of Rumania that one day she threw down a bunch of flowers from her balcony on the royal cortege passing by. That was a period of anarchist terror and so this caused her family some trouble.
- She met her first husband, Constantin Cantacuzino, during a troubled flight on a commercial Rumanian airliner. Her future husband was the pilot of the plane she was on when one of the engines caught fire. He came back to reassure the passengers. Cantacuzino was purportedly Prince Constantin Cantacuzino. The couple married and eventually fled their Communist-occupied country and lived for a time in Paris, eventually settling in Spain.
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