Antonelli was born Laura Antonaz in Pola, Kingdom of Italy (in Croatian, Pula), former capital of Istria.

[1] After the war, her parents fled what was then Yugoslavia, lived in Italian refugee camps and eventually settled in Naples,[2] where her father found work as a hospital administrator.

[4] She moved to Rome, where she became a secondary-school gym teacher and was able to meet people in the entertainment industry, who helped her find modelling jobs.

[9] She won the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Award, Nastro d'Argento, in 1974 for Malizia.

[11] In 2006, the Italian court of appeals ruled in favour of Antonelli and ordered the Ministry of Justice to pay the actress 108,000 euros.