Born: 30 September 1968Birthplace: Citta di Castello, Italy
Best Known As: The star of the movie Malena
Long a star in Italy, where she has drawn comparisons to Sophia Loren, Monica Bellucci turned heads worldwide as a hip-swinging war widow in the 2000 Italian hit Malena. A former model, Bellucci began her film career in 1990; she made her U.S. feature debut in Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (1992) and proved herself as a leading lady in L'Appartement (1996).
She appeared with Morgan Freeman in Under Suspicion (2000) and with Keanu Reeves and Laurence Fishburne in 2003's The Matrix Reloaded. In 2004 she played Mary Magdalene to Jim Caviezel's Jesus of Nazareth in the film The Passion of the Christ.
