Maria Grazia Cucinotta Pictures

Few Americans will recognize Italian beauty Maria Grazia Cucinotta. The actress has had little exposure stateside, save for small bit parts as one of Tony's hallucinations on the HBO series The Sopranos and as a villain in the James Bond film The World is Not Enough. But in Italy, Maria is a much bigger star. She solidified her acting career with a lead role in the 1994 international hit Il Postino. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Maria was born in Messina, Sicily, on July 27, 1969. She began modeling when she was 16 years old, but that lasted only a couple of years before she quit. Having filled out as a voluptuous young woman, she became unhappy with modeling due to the focus on her body instead of her face. So her interests turned toward acting.

She auditioned for a job in Rome on the Italian show Indietro Tutta, a parody show, and got the job. She concurrently took acting lessons and worked with a voice coach to rid herself of her Sicilian accent. Next Maria landed plenty of roles in commercials, making lots of contacts for future work. It was filmmaker Massimo Troisi who befriended her, believed in her, and took a chance by casting her in Il Postino, solidifying her career as an Italian actress and gaining international recognition.

The 5' 10", 39-25-35 bombshell was soon receiving offers to star in many other films in her homeland, many of them largely successful. She can be seen in the 2005 multi-national film All the Invisible Children, a series of seven short films about the trials and tribulations of children around the world. Directors include Ridley Scott and John Woo.