Actress Elsa Martinelli poses at her home in Rome on April 12, 1957,. (AP photo)

Italian actress Elsa Martinelli, who co-starred in Orson Welles’ 1962 movie The Trial, and appeared opposite him a year later in The V.I.P.s died on July 8 in Rome. She was 82.

She was born Elisa Tia in Grosseto, Tuscany, before moving to Rome with her family.

Martinelli was discovered in 1953 by designer Robert Capucci, who introduced her to the world of fashion before she turned her talent  to films.

Martinelli was best known for her roles in Le Rouge Et Le Noir in 1954 and for The Indian Fighter the following year, in which she starred opposite Kirk Douglas.

In 1962, she was given the role of  Hilda in Welles’ adaptation of The Trial.

In Anthony Asquith’s The V.I.P.s, Martinelli was cast as a young actress, Gloria Gritti, traveling in the company of film producer Max Buda, played by Welles.

Her other films included Hatari, Madigan’s Millions and Candy.

Married in 1957 with Count Franco Mancinelli Scotti of San Vito , she had a daughter, Christian. In 1968, he remarried with photographer and designer Willy Rizzo, who died in 2013.