Pier Angeli: A Fragile Life

by Jane Allen

"In Pier Angeli, a nineteen-year-old Italian girl, Hollywood has found an actress who eludes the town's traditional classifications and whose unvarnished beauty and instinctive talent have already caused her to be called 'Little Garbo'"--Theodore Strauss in Collier's, April 1952. This work is the first biography in English of actress Anna Maria Pierangeli, from her early life in Italy to her death at the age of 39. She was discovered by Vittorio De Sica and soon after starred in her first film, Domani e troppo tardi (Tomorrow Is Too Late), which began her meteoric rise to fame in Italy. She arrived in Hollywood in 1950 at the age of 18, and the first thing MGM did was change her name to Pier Angeli and predict great things for its newest actress. The book covers her seven year career with MGM, her two unhappy marriages to Vic Damone and Armando Trovajoli, her love for her children Perry and Andrew, her brief and stormy relationship with James Dean, her dependent relationships with her mother and such stars as Kirk Douglas, Richard Attenborough and Debbie Reynolds, and the mystery surrounding her death.

Genres: Biography

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Colleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate to find this book on this site at a decent price, and I'm so glad that I did. Not only is it informative and readable, but it really gives you insight into the life of one of the most underrated and neglected young actresses of the 50s, Anna Maria Pierangeli, known as Pier Angeli during her MGM contract. The Italian actress lost her father in her early teens and was controlled and chaperoned by her domineering mother, Enrica, who essentially kept Pier away from her true love, actor James Dean, and convinced her daughter to enter into a marriage with singer/actor Vic Damone, a union that would be short-lived and a disasterous mistake. Her career faltered during her marriage to Damone and it never regained the same momentum. Pier found herself in increasingly more unworthy and exploitative films in Europe before her return to Hollywood in 1971. Her second marriage to musician Armando Trovajoli was as disasterous as her first, and she lost custody of her children. However, her return to California was a time of high hopes that her career could be rejuvenated. I personally never believed that Pier committed suicide, and it's good to see that the author argues against this theory and proves that there was no suicide note, as has often been claimed. She loved her children and her sisters far too much to do that, even if pills and alcohol did bring a temporary escape at times.

There are some wonderful sources and people who were close to Pier who make this biography all the more interesting, such as her fraternal twin sister Marisa Pavan, her younger sister Patrizia, her son Perry Damone, as well as many who worked with Pier and befriended her. You have to wonder how reliable of a source Enrica Pierangeli was, however. The term "stage mother" is never used but the way their mother and daughter relationship was described (love/hate, Enrica's constant presence and living through her daughter's career, how she tried to control who Pier dated, the fact that they were dependant on each other despite that they had a "terrible relationship" and would check with each other many times a day), seems remarkably similar to the lives of Natalie Wood and Sandra Dee, both of whom had stage mothers. And the fact that Marisa and Patrizia were pushed into the background and the focus was on Pier in the family - speaks volumes. Enrica tried to downplay Pier's relationship and feelings for James Dean, and I get the strong impression that Enrica's dislike of Dean and the fact that she lost control over Pier through much of her time with Jimmy and later her marriage to Damone played a large part in how Enrica relayed things after Pier's death.

Pier was a gentle, childlike and somewhat naive young girl at the beginning of her screen career, and I think because of that and her mother's pushing to have Pier support the family, that made her vulnerable to both the studio and to people around her who did not have her best interests at heart. She was never really given the kind of roles that showed her acting talent, with a few exceptions, and to me that's a shame because I truly think that the world was deprived of Pier's talent and presence. She longed for love, and perhaps a bit of a father replacement, since she adored him and kept his photo (along with that of James Dean) for the rest of her life. She managed to avoid marrying Kirk Douglas, but sadly Damone was her mother's choice and she went along with it, although there may have been affection on her part for Vic, her heart always belong to Jimmy, as she stated later in life.
She suffered so much, but she did not take her own life.

I would like to thank Jane Allen for her effort and for bringing this great biography of Pier and for opening a window into her world and the times she lived in. I wish Pier's family and friends all the best and hope they are doing well, and I hope Jimmy and his Annarella are together in heaven.

[Mick Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

A biography of the highest order,gives a well balanced view of pier,does not take sides or go for sensationalism.she seemed to be at her happiest when first starting out in films in her home country,then it is the usual tale of Being swept up by that massive talent Hoover known as hollywood.it seems that especially during these years that they bought all the talent they could without knowing what to do with it.bad choices by the studios and later when under bad advice she got out of her contract only to make just as bad a choice herself.i was left to wander if in later life she would have been diagnosed as bi-polar and not be pumped full of drugs by people and a quack doctor to make life easy for themselves.ok probably a limited talent but excellent in the angry silence.her choices in men left a lot to be desired.

[roseanne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book may have been written with positive intent.however the author 's content
was woeful of true insight and analysis of the reasons this starlet 's career and life
went so amuck !

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5