RIP Silvia Monti

 

Silvia Monti, actress and wife of Carlo De Benedetti, has died

He was 80 years old. Success had come with "As long as there is war there is hope", directed and performed by Alberto Sordi

FQ Magazine

August 12, 2026

 

Silvia Monti, actress and wife of entrepreneur Carlo De Benedetti, died after an illness. She was 80 years old. For several years she worked in cinema.

In 1974 success came with "Finché c’è guerra c’è speranza", directed and starring Alberto Sordi. The actress played the character of Silvia, the wife of the protagonist Pietro Chiocca (Sordi himself), who supports and enjoys the high standard of living and luxuries guaranteed by her husband's business in the international arms trade. At the height of his popularity, Monti decided to abandon the big screen and retire from public life.

Life and career

Born Silvia Cornacchia on January 23, 1946 in Bassano del Grappa, in the province of Vicenza, she was a well-known face of Italian cinema between the late sixties and the first half of the seventies.

Over the course of a few years she had worked with directors such as Alberto Lattuada, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, Gérard Oury, Lucio Fulci, Luigi Bazzoni and Alberto Sordi. After leaving the cinema, she married the Venetian count Luigi Donà dalle Rose with whom she had two children, Leonardo and Una. The couple separated in 1994. On July 10, 1997, the former actress remarried entrepreneur Carlo De Benedetti, with whom she remained linked for almost three decades and with whom she moved to Lugano, Switzerland, where she lived in recent years.

Silvia Monti's debut on the big screen came in 1969 with Alberto Lattuada's "Fräulein Doktor", where she had a small part. In the same year she starred in "Metti, una sera a cena" by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, "Il cervello" by Gérard Oury and "Sai cosa faceva Stalin alle donne?" by Maurizio Liverani. In the following years, some of the best-known titles in his filmography had arrived. In 1971 she took part in "A lizard with a woman's skin" by Lucio Fulci, "Black day for the ram" by Luigi Bazzoni and "The black corsair" by Lorenzo Gicca Palli.

In 1972 she was part of the cast of "Afyon – Oppio" by Ferdinando Baldi. Then, she worked in "Sono stato io!" by Lattuada, "Peccato d'amore", "La mano spietata della legge" by Mario Gariazzo, "Il domestico" and "Milano: il clan dei calabresi".

MONTI, Silvia

Born: 1/23/1946, Bassano del Grappa, Veneto, Italy

Died: 8/12/2026, Lugano, Switzerland

 

Silvia Monti’s western – actress:

Judge Roy Bean – 1971 (Cat/Katy)