Gabriella Licudi is a Moroccan-born British

British people

The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...

 former actress.

Born in Casablanca while her father, a Greek naval engineer, was stationed there, Gabriella Licudi was educated in England, France and Spain before settling permanently in England at the age of fifteen. Initially planning to teach elocution, she studied at the Central School of Speech and Drama

Central School of Speech and Drama

The Central School of Speech and Drama was founded in London in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students...

, where she was spotted by an agent while performing in a class production in 1961. Her first major role on stage was John Mortimer

John Mortimer

Sir John Clifford Mortimer, CBE, QC was a British barrister, dramatist, screenwriter and author.-Early life:...

's Two Stars for Comfort, starring Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard

Trevor Howard , born Trevor Wallace Howard-Smith, was an English film, stage and television actor.-Early life:...

 which ran for nine months in London's West End. Film producer Samuel Bronston

Samuel Bronston

Samuel Bronston was a Bessarabian-born American film producer, film director, and a nephew of socialist revolutionary figure, Leon Trotsky. He was also the petitioner in a U.S...

 attended a performance and offered her a small role in The Fall of the Roman Empire

The Fall of the Roman Empire (film)

The Fall of the Roman Empire is a 1964 English-language epic film produced by Samuel Bronston Productions and the Rank Organisation, and released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston with Jaime Prades and Michal Waszynski as associate producers. The...

(1964).

Other roles included as a widowed expatriate opposite Patrick McGoohan

Patrick McGoohan

Patrick Joseph McGoohan was an American-born actor, raised in Ireland and England, with an extensive stage and film career, most notably in the 1960s television series Danger Man , and The Prisoner, which he co-created...

 in the 1965 episode of Danger Man

Danger Man

Danger Man is a British television series that was broadcast between 1960 and 1962, and again between 1964 and 1968. The series featured Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake. Ralph Smart created the program and wrote many of the scripts...

 titled "English Lady Takes Lodgers". Licudi also had appeared in the James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 spoof Casino Royale

Casino Royale (1967 film)

Casino Royale is a 1967 comedy spy film originally produced by Columbia Pictures starring an ensemble cast of directors and actors. It is set as a satire of the James Bond film series and the spy genre, and is loosely based on Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel.The film stars David Niven as the...

(1967) opposite Deborah Kerr

Deborah Kerr

Deborah Kerr, CBE was a Scottish film and television actress from Glasgow. She won the Sarah Siddons Award for her Chicago performance as Laura Reynolds in Tea and Sympathy, a role which she originated on Broadway, a Golden Globe Award for the motion picture The King and I, and was a three-time...

, the Henry Hathaway

Henry Hathaway

Henry Hathaway was an American film director and producer. He is best known as a director of Westerns, especially starring John Wayne.-Background:...

 film The Last Safari

Gilligan's Last Elephant

Gilligan's Last Elephant is a novel written by Gerald Hanley and first published in 1962.Henry Hathaway's 1967 movie entitled The Last Safari starring Stewart Granger and Gabriella Licudi was based on the novel....

(1967), and a lead role in Don Levy

Don Levy

Don Levy was an artist and film-maker.Levy was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. After studying theoretical chemistry at the University of Sydney, he was awarded a Research Scholarship to Cambridge University. There he obtained a PhD in Theoretical Chemical Physics in 1960...

's experimental feature Herostratus

Herostratus (film)

Herostratus is a 1967 film made in London by the Australian director Don Levy, about a young man who wants to commit suicide in public by jumping off a tall building. The title comes from the name of the Ancient Greek man Herostratus, who sought to immortalize his name by setting fire to the Temple...

(1967).

Gabriella Licudi made her last film appearances in the early 1970s. She and her South African husband ran a safari lodge

Safari lodge

A safari lodge is a type of tourist accommodation in southern and eastern Africa. Lodges are mainly used by tourists on wildlife safaris, and are typically located in or near national parks or game reserves....

for several years before she eventually returned to London to run her own production company.

External links