Anna Maria Pierangeli (19 June 1932 – 10 September 1971[1]), known internationally by the stage name Pier Angeli, was an Italian actress, model and singer.

In the United States, Angeli was typecast in "European ingénue" roles, and notably played romantic leading ladies in The Light Touch (1951), The Devil Makes Three (1952), The Story of Three Loves (1953), The Silver Chalice (1954), and Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956).

She was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for her role opposite Richard Attenborough in the British film The Angry Silence (1960).

Off-screen, Angeli was known for her high-profile romantic affairs with actors Kirk Douglas and James Dean, and later her tumultuous marriage to singer Vic Damone.

Her work was so impressive that she won the Nastro d'Argento for Best Actress, and caught the eye of MGM producers, who offered her a contract with the studio.

Under contract to MGM throughout the 1950s, she appeared in a series of films, including The Light Touch with Stewart Granger and The Devil Makes Three with Gene Kelly.

Plans for a film of Romeo and Juliet with her and Marlon Brando fell through when a British-Italian production was announced.

"[1] She then appeared in The Vintage (1957) and finished her MGM contract in Merry Andrew (1958) starring alongside Danny Kaye.

During the 1960s and until 1970, Angeli lived and worked in Britain and Europe, and was often screen-credited under her birth name, Anna Maria Pierangeli.

Her performance in The Angry Silence (1960), starring alongside her friend Richard Attenborough, was nominated for a Best Foreign Actress BAFTA, and she was reunited with Stewart Granger for Sodom and Gomorrah (1963), in which she played Lot's wife.

Angeli worked in Israel, and was top-billed, for Every Bastard a King (1968), about events during the Arab-Israeli Six-Day War the previous year.

[4][5] According to Kirk Douglas' autobiography The Ragman's Son, he and Angeli were engaged in the 1950s after meeting on the set of the film The Story of Three Loves (1953).

An Order for the Solemnization of Marriage pamphlet with the name "Pier" lightly penciled in every place the bride's name is left blank was found amongst Dean's personal effects after his death.

A fictional interpretation of her life can be found in the book, Anna-Maria Pier Angeli: Une Madone à Babylone.