Nita Naldi

Nita Naldi was born Anita Donna Dooley in 1897 in New York. She began her career as a showgirl in a Shubert revue and later went on to the famed Ziegfeld Follies.

In 1920 she appeared with John Barrymore in Dr. Jeykll & Mr. Hyde. This, her first role, seemed to solidify her film career. She then did a number of very successful vamp roles and was was fast becoming filmdom's leading, sexy lady. However, it was 1922's BLOOD & SAND that was to set her apart from others. Nita starred opposite Rudolph Valentino in one of the silent era's last truly great productions. (BTW, it was in Hollywood, through the alchemy of press agentry, that Nita was rhapsodized as a patrician grande dame, a daughter of a famed Italian diplomat, a distant relation of Dante’s Beatrice. Not bad for a gal from a working class NYC Irish-Italian family.)

In 1928, she made the last two of her 31 films. With the arrival of sound, her New York accent did not lend itself well to the "talkies", whereupon she retired from the silver screen. Nita died in 1961.

Nita Naldi - What do you think? Allure?