Maria Grazia Cucinotta

Cucinotta was born 27 July 1968^[2][3] in Messina in Sicily, Italy.^[3][4] In a May 2019 interview with Il Giornale, she related how she was taunted as a young girl for the size of her breasts, and that at age 19, she nearly underwent breast reduction surgery, saying, "My mother saved me at 19 when I was about to make the biggest mistake of my life. I wanted to have a breast reduction. For me, it was too bulky. Like all the women in my family, I have a size 6. I considered it a nightmare, especially as a young girl when I felt the eyes on me and the jokes of adults. They told me my breasts weren't suitable for modelling. But I cancelled the operation. My mother said she'd failed as a parent if I'd had that operation. Luckily, Renzo Arbore later called me to work as a showgirl, and my life changed."^[5]

After playing a few bit parts on television, her first movie role was in Michael Radford's critically acclaimed Il Postino (1994). Cucinotta played Beatrice Russo, the female love interest opposite Massimo Troisi.^[6][7] Despite the film being Cucinotta's first major role, Troisi had no doubt about her abilities, as Cucinotta later recalled:

He was a director and an actor who had the patience to teach me everything because I arrived at that audition recommended by a woman, Nathalie Caldonazzo, who was Massimo's girlfriend. That film changed my life. I'm happy that people still talk about him and that film with which he brought Italianness around the world.^[6]

National Review critic John Simon effusively praised Cucinotta's performance, describing it as "a cross between ancient Mediterranean love-goddess-hood and un-self-consciously sultry girlishness."^[8]

Cucinotta took part in the James Bond film The World is Not Enough (1999), playing a villain named "Cigar Girl".^[9] That same year, she also guest starred in The Sopranos episode "Isabella" as the titular character.^[10]

In 2005 Cucinotta appeared on The Simpsons episode "The Italian Bob", voicing Sideshow Bob's wife, Francesca.^[11] She also produced and acted in All the Invisible Children (2005), an anthology film serving as a charity fundraiser for UNICEF. Cucinotta appeared in the segment titled "Ciro", directed by co-producer Stefano Veneruso.^[12][13]

Cucinotta won the America Award of the Italy-USA Foundation in 2010.^[14] In 2012, Cucinotta received a star on the Italian Walk of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.^[15]

Maria Grazia Cucinotta is a Roman Catholic and devoted to Saint Anthony of Padua.^[16]