Teresa Ann Savoy

Teresa Ann Savoy, FRSA, was a British actress who appeared in a number of Italian films. She fled home at 16 and lived in a hippie community in Sicily before making her mark on screen. Her career began in 1974 when director Alberto Lattuada gave her her first role in "Le farò da padre" (I'll Take Her Like a Father), playing Clotilde.

Savoy soon became known for her work in provocative cinema. In 1975 she played baroness Mary Vetsera in Miklós Jancsó's "Vizi privati, pubbliche virtù" (Private Vices, Public Pleasures), a film about Crown Prince Rudolf's rebellion. She met Tinto Brass in 1975 and worked with him the following year in "Salon Kitty," where she played a young girl who poses as a prostitute for the SS. In 1979 Brass directed her again as Drusilla in the controversial film "Caligula." She also appeared in "La disubbidienza" (Disobedience) in 1981 and in Jancsó's "A zsarnok szíve" the same year.

Beyond these, Savoy took on parts in "Sandokan alla riscossa!" (1977), "La Certosa di Parma" (1982), "Il ragazzo di Ebalus" (1984), and "D'Annunzio" (1986), where she played Maria di Gallese. In 1989 she received the title of Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. Her last film appearance was in 2000 in "La fabbrica del vapore," the first Italian digital movie. Savoy died of cancer on 9 January 2017 in Milan, where she lived with her husband and two children. In 2021, Spanish journalist Martín Llade published a novel reconstructing her life and career.