RIP Dana Ghia

 THE OBITUARY OF THE RIGHTEOUS - DANA GHIA, 92 YEARS OLD

Dag.Spia

January 15, 2024

Marco Giusti

 

Dana Ghia, actress in about thirty films in the '60s and '70s, from "Queimada" to "They Kept Calling Him Trinity", from "The Priest's Wife" to "The Murderer and the Cop", model and singer since the '50s, is leaving. Milanese, tall, beautiful, slender and above all blonde, indeed very blonde when the public saw her in 1959 at the VII Festival of Naples singing "Ammore celeste" together with Arturo Testa. With a voice that is not particularly extensive but decidedly sexy, as described by the American chronicles in 1958 during her tour in America and Canada as a discovery of Luciano Tajoli struggling with the Italian versions of international hits such as "Secret Love" and "Catch a Falling Star".

Protagonist at the time of spaghetti westerns often under the name of Ghia Arlen or Dana Madigan, he was unable to obtain in the following years, in the comedy of the masters, Ettore Scola ("Il commissario Pepe"), Dino Risi ("Il giovane normale", "La moglie del prete"), in the thrillers of Antonio Margheriti, Tonino Valerii, Ferdinando Baldi, or in the sexy comedy, "Sins of youth" by Silvio Amadio, equally significant roles, also due to the arrival of new stars. Born as Felicita Ghia in Milan in 1932, she began a very early career as a model that she alternated with that of singer and actress, between theater, TV, night club.

She made her debut on the small screen of Rai as a singer in the program "Primo applauso" in 1956. The following year, at the Velletri Festival, the dress was more noticeable, a sort of pleated trousers called "Hana Ogi" in honor of the character played by Mijko Taka in "Sayonara". He then made a series of tours around the world, in England where he made his debut on TV with the BBc show of new faces "New Faces" in 1959, even in Russia where he sang "Il pericolo numero 1" and a choice of classic Neapolitan songs. We find her in the theater with Carlo Dapporto in 1962 in the variety show "Babilonia", in 1963 and 1964 in the successful "Scanzonatissimo" by Dino Verde, a political satire show with Antonella Steni, Elio Pandolfi, Rossella Como.

She made her debut in cinema with "Forbidden Temptations" by Osvaldo Civiranoi in 1963, then we find her again as a singer in "Questo pazzo, pazzo mondo della canzone" in 1965, followed by a series of good Italian westerns, "Deguejo" by Giuseppe Vari with Giacomo Rossi Stuart where she was given the name of Ghia Arlen, "Four Dollars of Revenge" by Jaime Jesus Balcazar with Robert Woods, "The Last Killer" by Giuseppe Vari with George Eastman and Anthony Ghidra, who was actually called Dragomir Ghidra, "El desperado" by Franco Rossetti with Andrea Giordana. More dramatic, but not as a protagonist, is the role she is entrusted with in "Tomorrow we are no longer here" by Brunello Rondi with Ingrid Thulin, Robert Hoffman, Maria Grazia Buccella.

In "Today to Me Tomorrow to You" by Tonino Cervi with Bud Spencer and Tatsuya Nakadai, she becomes "Diana Madigan", but she is the only woman in the film. We find her again in "The Wrath of God" by Alberto Cardone with the American Brett Halsey. It changes genre in "Vacanze sulla Costa Smeralda" by Ruggero Deodato with Silvia Dionisio and Little Tony. He then starred in the important "Queimada" by Gillo Pontecorvo with Marlon Brando, in the successful "Il commissario Pepe" by Ettore Scola, in two films by Dino Risi, "The Young Normal" and "The Priest's Lover". He shot a series of successful thrillers, "A butterfly with bloody wings", "My dear murderer" by Tonino Valerii, "Death in the eyes of the cat" by Antonio Margheriti, "Nine guests for a crime" by Ferdinando Baldi. But we also find it in "They Kept Calling Him Trinity" by E.B. Clucher with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill, "You're Jelly, Man, You've Met Sacramento".

In 1972 she starred with Maria Grazia Spina in the second episode of Piero Nelli's "Storie italiane" on Rai Uno. She is not suitable for sexy comedy, which she frequents with "La svergognata" by Giuliano Biagetti with Leonora Fani and "Sins of youth" by Silvio Amadio with Gloria Guida. We find it again in "The Bloody Medallion", a horror film by Massimo Dallamano, in "The Murderer and the Cop" by Umberto Lenzi in 1976. He returns to the western with "California" by Michele Lupo with Giuliano Gemma, which is his last film for the cinema. On TV in 1984 he still shoots for TV the Italian-French co-production series "La camera delle signore" directed by Yannick Andréi. He disappears from the world of entertainment. And she passed away at the age of 92 in Mori in Trentino, where she had retired.

GHIA, Dana (Felicita Ghia)

Born: 7/13/1932, Milan, Lombardy, Italy

Died: 1/15/2024, Mori, Trentino, Italy

 

Dana Ghia’s westerns – actress:

Deguello – 1965 (Jenny Slater) [as Ghia Arlen]

$4.00 of Revenge – 1966 (Mercedes)

The Dirty Outlaws - 1967 (Lucy)

Django, the Last Killer – 1967 (Lola)

Today We Kill… Tomorrow We Die! -1968 (Mirana Kiowa) [as Diana Madigan]

The Wrath of God – 1968 (Lena/Jane Harris)

You're Jinxed, Friend You've Met Sacramento – 1970 (Rosy/Rosie)

Trinity Is STILL My Name! - 1971 (Perla’s/Pearl’s mother)

California – 1977 (Mrs. Preston)