Nita Naldi (born Mary Nonna Dooley;[3][4] November 13, 1894 – February 17, 1961) was an American stage performer and silent film actress.

Nita Naldi was born in a tenement in New York City to working class Irish parents, Julia (née Cronin) and Patrick Dooley, in 1894.

She soon entered vaudeville with her brother Frank, and by 1918, she was performing as a chorus girl at the Winter Garden Theatre in The Passing Show of 1918.

[citation needed] Working under her new name, Naldi continued acting on Broadway, and after her well-received performance in The Bonehead, producer William A. Brady in 1920 offered her a role in his play Opportunity.

Naldi was selected by Spanish author Vicente Blasco Ibáñez for the role of Doña Sol in the film version of his novel Blood and Sand (1922).

[citation needed] During this time, Naldi posed for famous Peruvian artist Alberto Vargas, who painted her embracing a bust of a satyr.

[9] In Vargas's original “pin-up” painting, Naldi is depicted topless, but copies of the portrait that were published and widely distributed in the 1920s, such as in the art and entertainment magazine Shadowland, were “modified” by the addition of clothing to cover her partially visible left breast.

[10] While Valentino went on his one-man strike, which prevented him from appearing on film, Naldi took on several Famous Players–Lasky roles with growing importance, including The Ten Commandments (1923), directed by Cecil B. DeMille.

When Valentino returned and fixed his contract woes, she joined him for his final Famous Players–Lasky film, the now lost A Sainted Devil (1924).

The film suffered distribution problems, it was barely noted at the time, but it is noteworthy for being actress Myrna Loy's first screen appearance.

[citation needed] After finishing the Dorothy Gish film Clothes Make the Pirate, Naldi left for France for a short vacation, where she married J. Searle Barclay.

Despite multiple rumors that she had retired, Naldi began work on several films, including Alfred Hitchcock's The Mountain Eagle in 1926.

[4] Naldi spent her final years in New York City, where she died of a heart attack in her room at the Wentworth Hotel on West 46th Street[3] on February 17, 1961.