Marisa Berenson - Career

Career

A fashion model who came to prominence in the early 1960s — "I once was one of the highest paid models in the world", she told The New York Times — Berenson appeared on the cover of the July 1970 issue of Vogue as well as the cover of Time on 15 December 1975. She appeared in numerous fashion layouts in Vogue in the early 1970s and her sister Berry was a photographer for the magazine as well. She was known as "The Queen of the Scene" for her frequent appearances at nightclubs and other social venues in her youth, and Yves Saint Laurent dubbed her "the girl of the Seventies".

Eventually she was cast in several prominent film roles, including Gustav von Aschenbach's wife in Luchino Visconti's 1971 film Death in Venice, the Jewish department store heiress Natalia Landauer in the 1972 film Cabaret, for which she received some acclaim (including two Golden Globe nominations, a BAFTA nomination and an award from the National Board of Review), and the tragic beauty Lady Lyndon in the Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon (1975). Vincent Canby of The New York Times stated of her performance: "Marisa Berenson splendidly suits her costumes and wigs."

Berenson appeared in a number of other movies, most of them shot in Europe, as well as in made-for-TV movies in the United States, such as the Holocaust-themed drama Playing for Time (1980). She guest-hosted an episode of The Muppet Show during its third season in 1978. She most recently appeared in the 2010 film I Am Love.