Actress Laura Betti Dies

Italian actress Laura Betti died on Saturday (31JUL04). She was 70.

Betti was a close friend of the late director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who cast her in several of his films, notably THE CANTERBURY TALES, in which she played the WIFE OF BATH.

She also had roles in Federico Fellini's classic La Dolce Vita and two of Bernardo Bertolucci's most famous films, 1900 and Last Tango in Paris.

One of Betti's last appearances on the screen was in the 2001 film A MA SOEUR, by French director Catherine Breillat.

In 2001 she made a documentary about Pasolini, who was killed in mysterious circumstances on a beach near Rome in 1975.

Betti, whose real surname was TROMBETTI, was born in the northern Italian city of Bologna and started her showbiz career as a jazz singer.