Vittoria Marisa Schiaparelli Berenson is an American actress and model. She appeared on the front covers of Vogue and Time, and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Natalia Landauer in the 1972 film Cabaret. The role also earned her Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations. In 2001, she made her Broadway debut in the revival of Design for Living. Her other film appearances include Death in Venice, Barry Lyndon, S.O.B. and I Am Love.
Early life
Childhood
Berenson was born in New York City, the elder of two daughters. Her father, Robert Lawrence Berenson, was an American career diplomat turned shipping executive of Lithuanian Jewish descent, and his family's original surname was Valvrojenski. Her mother was Maria-Luisa Yvonne "Gogo" Radha de Wendt Schiaparelli, a socialite of Italian, Swiss, French, and Egyptian ancestry.
A fashion model discovered as a teenager by Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, who came to prominence in the 1960s, Berenson appeared on the cover of the July 1970 issue of Vogue as well as the cover of Time on December 15, 1975. She appeared in numerous fashion layouts in Vogue in the late 1960s and 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 filmDeath in Venice; the Jewish department store heiress Natalia Landauer in the 1972 film Cabaret, for which she received acclaim ; and the tragic beauty Lady Lyndon in the Stanley Kubrick film Barry Lyndon. Vincent Canby of The New York Times stated of her performance: "Marisa Berenson splendidly suits her costumes and wigs." She recalled her experience working under Kubrick's direction: Berenson appeared in a number of other movies including Casanova & Co., Killer Fish, the Blake Edwards comedy S.O.B., The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud and Clint Eastwood's White HunterBlack Heart, as well as in made-for-TV movies in the United States, such as the Holocaust-themed dramaPlaying for Time. She guest-hosted an episode of The Muppet Show during its third season in 1978. She made her Broadway debut in the 2001 revival of Design for Living, which also starred Jennifer Ehle, Alan Cumming and Dominic West. In 2009, she appeared in the film I Am Love. In August 2016 she appeared in a production of Romeo and Juliet at the Garrick Theatre in London, as Lady Capulet. Berenson is chairman of the board of Culture Project, an organization that sponsors the theater.
Personal life
On September 11, 2001, her younger sister and sole sibling, Berry Perkins, widow of actor Anthony Perkins, was killed in the first flight to hit the World Trade Center. Marisa was also in an airplane during the terrorist attacks, flying from Paris to New York. In an interview with CBS, she told of the experience and how hours later she landed in Newfoundland, and was told of her sister's death by a phone call with her daughter. Said Berenson: "I have hope and tremendous faith. I think that's what gets you through life... through tragedies is when you have faith." Of her practice of Transcendental Meditation she said:
India changed my life, because I was searching for my spiritual path, and I ended up in an ashram in Rishikesh with Maharishi and the Beatles. We’d sit on the floor at night, and George and Ringo would play the guitar, and we'd meditate all day, and have meals together, and become vegetarians, and live in huts. But it was just normal. It wasn't like, "Oh, here are the Beatles." The most important thing was my transcendental meditation.
Berenson lives in a villa on the outskirts of Marrakech. She is fluent in English and Italian.
Relationships
Berenson's first husband was James Randall, a rivet manufacturer; they wed in Beverly Hills in 1976 and divorced in 1978. The couple have one daughter, Starlite Melody Randall. Her second husband was Aaron Richard Golub, a lawyer, whom she married in 1982 and divorced in 1987. During the divorce proceedings, the judge ruled "the increased value of Ms. Berenson's acting and modeling career during the marriage were marital property" and therefore subject to consideration in any settlement agreements.
