Marisa Berenson

Marisa Berenson, born Vittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson on February 15, 1947, in New York City, is an American model, actress, and Broadway performer. Her father, Robert Lawrence Berenson, was an American diplomat and later a shipping executive of Russian Jewish and Polish Jewish descent, whose family's original paternal surname was Valvrojenski. Her mother, Maria-Luisa Yvonne "Gogo" Radha de Wendt Schiaparelli, was a socialite of Italian, Swiss, and French descent. Through her mother, Berenson is a granddaughter of the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli and of Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor, a theosophist and psychic medium. She and her late sister Berry are also great-grandnieces of Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli and second cousins, once removed, of art expert Bernard Berenson and his sister Senda Berenson, an educator and athlete who was among the first two women elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

Berenson was discovered as a teenager by Vogue editor Diana Vreeland and made her debut on the cover of Vogue at age 18 in 1965. She went on to appear on the covers of both Vogue and Harper's Bazaar throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, becoming a prominent figure in fashion and social circles. Her visibility at nightclubs and social gatherings earned her the nickname "the Queen of the Scene," and designer Yves Saint Laurent referred to her as "the girl of the Seventies."

Her transition into film brought significant critical attention. She appeared in Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice in 1971, playing the wife of Gustav von Aschenbach. The following year she portrayed Natalia Landauer, a Jewish department store heiress, in the 1972 film Cabaret. That performance earned her the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress, along with nominations from the Golden Globes and BAFTA. In 1975, she played Lady Lyndon in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon, and that same year appeared on the cover of Time magazine on December 15. Her additional film credits include Casanova & Co. (1977), Killer Fish (1979), Blake Edwards's comedy S.O.B. (1981), The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984), Clint Eastwood's White Hunter Black Heart (1990), and Luca Guadagnino's I Am Love (2009). On television, she appeared in the Holocaust-themed drama Playing for Time (1980) and guest-starred in a third-season episode of The Muppet Show in 1978.

In 2001, Berenson made her Broadway debut in a revival of Noel Coward's Design for Living, joining a cast that included Jennifer Ehle, Alan Cumming, and Dominic West. The production marked her first appearance on the New York stage. In August 2016, she appeared at the Garrick Theatre in London in a production of Romeo and Juliet, playing Lady Capulet. Berenson also serves as chairman of the board of Culture Project, an organization that sponsors theater.

Berenson's personal life has included two marriages. Her first husband was James Randall, a rivet manufacturer, whom she married in November 1976 at his Beverly Hills home in a ceremony attended by Andy Warhol, Halston, Valentino, and Giorgio di Sant'Angelo, with her sister serving as maid of honor and George Hamilton as best man. The couple had one daughter in 1977 before divorcing in 1978. Her second husband was lawyer Aaron Richard Golub, born in 1942 in Worcester, Massachusetts, whom she married in 1982 and divorced in 1987. During those divorce proceedings, the judge determined that the increased value of Berenson's acting and modeling career during the marriage constituted marital property subject to settlement consideration. Earlier, in 1972, she had been engaged to French banking heir David René de Rothschild; the couple separated the following year.

Berenson's younger sister, Berinthia, known as Berry Berenson, was a model, actress, and photographer who was married to actor Anthony Perkins. Berry Berenson died on September 11, 2001, as a passenger aboard American Airlines Flight 11. On that same day, Marisa was aboard a flight from Paris to New York; her plane was diverted to Newfoundland, Canada, where she later learned of her sister's death by phone. Berenson is fluent in English, Italian, and French and resides in a villa on the outskirts of Marrakesh.