Daniela Rocca
Actor · Died May 28, 1995, aged 57 · Acireale, Italy
Daniela Rocca was a beautiful and talented model, actress and writer, born in one of the poorest districts of Sicily, who found fleeting success in Italian cinema. Although she had envisioned herself as a writer, she entered a beauty pageant, was elected Miss Catania in 1953, and after competing for the Miss Italy title, she made her screen debut in 1954 in «La Luciana». Rocca was cast in horror films as Riccardo Freda's «Caltiki, the Immortal Monster» (co-directed by Mario Bava) and international productions as Abel Gance's «Austerlitz», but her attractive looks made her ideal for the péplum genre, appearing in Fernando Cerchio's «Judith and Holofernes», Vittorio Cottafavi's «The Legions of Cleopatra», Bruno Vailati's «The Giant of Marathon» (also co-directed by Bava), Vittorio Sala's «The Queen of the Amazons» and most notably in the Italian-American co-production co-directed by Raoul Walsh and Bava, «Esther and the King», in which she played adulterous Queen Vashti, who dances to the court and ends her performance baring her breasts as an act of defiance to King Ahasuerus, and to the prudish film industries of those days. The following year director Pietro Germi decided to make «Divorce Italian Style», a comedy denouncing the prohibition of divorce by Italian society, while being indulgent to crimes of passion. Germi gave Rocca the role of her career at 24. When she accepted to play an unattractive wife with a mustachioed upper lip, it was seen as an act of great courage for a young symbol of Mediterranean beauty. The movie became an international hit, she won the Best Actress award at the Avellino Neorealism Film Festival, and the movie received the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. But Rocca had fallen hopelessly in love with Germi and when he rejected her, she attempted suicide. Although she continued to appear in films, by 1963 she was considered unreliable and received no film offers. She appeared in Fred Zinnemann's «Behold a Pale Horse» in 1964, but fell into a state of severe depression. She recovered in a mental institution, in Palermo. In 1978 Rocca gave and interview to Marco Bellocchio for the documentary «The Cinema Machine», in which the actress claimed she had been abandoned by her former colleagues. "They said I was crazy, when all I had was a nervous breakdown. They sent me off to the hospital. It took a long time for the doctors to realize that I wasn't mad and let me go." Daniela Rocca spent the last years of her life near Catania, at a retirement home where she wrote the books «Secret Agent with License to Live», «Lawyer for Rent», «Condemned to Death», «Psychoanalysis, Dreams, and Fantasies Hidden in the Mind», and the poetry collection «Ara». A tragic symbol of short-lived fame in cinema and of unrequited love, Rocca was the object of two literary homages: the Argentine poet Juan Gelman dedicated a poem to the actress called «Theory About Daniela Rocca», and on April 12, 2016 Domenico Trischitta opened his drama in two acts «Quick Sands» in the Musco theater in Catania, based on her life.
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Biography from IMDb.
- September 12, 1937
- May 28, 1995 (aged 57)
- Acireale, Italy
- Actor
- 8 on MovieCove · 24 credits in all
Known for
What are Daniela Rocca's films like?
Across their 7 MovieCove titles with a thematic analysis, their films lean Power and Morality.
Themes
What they feel like to watch
Ironic 2 · Wry 0 · Earnest 5
Light 2 · Serious 3 · Dark 2
Grounded 2 · Stylized 3 · Heightened 2
Gentle 1 · Charged 4 · Intense 2
Steady 1 · Shifting 6 · Whiplash 0
Straight-faced 5 · Some laughs 0 · Funny 2
Slow burn 3 · Even-paced 4 · Relentless 0
A split, not a type: Casual 4 · Engaged 2 · Full focus 1
Easy watch 4 · Affecting 3 · Heavy 0
Resolved 6 · Open-ended 1 · Ambiguous 0
Roles they play
Usually the Shadow: 2 of 3 analyzed roles.
- Shapeshifteras Melitta in Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960)
- Shadowas Melitta in Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960)
- Shadowas Rosalia Cefalù in Divorce Italian Style (1961)
Moods and endings
- Happy2
- Bittersweet2
- Tragic1
- Ambiguous2
AI-generated from each title's plot synopsis and cast list, with extra plot summaries, reviews and Parents Guide notes for titles the model may not know, and the model's own knowledge of the ones it recognizes. Only analyzed titles count, so this covers part of the filmography; the feel axes count films only for now.
Where can I watch Daniela Rocca's films?
As of October 24, 2026, 7 of their 8 MovieCove titles stream on a subscription or free service, most on Tubi (5).
Subscription and free streaming for Daniela Rocca's titles on MovieCove; rent and buy are not counted. Titles are listed by Midcredits score, highest first, at most 12 per service; a dashed chip is a producer credit or a minor one, such as a thanks. A service opens the browse page, which counts movies only, so its number can differ.
Filmography
24 credits, 8 with a MovieCove page.
Assicurasi vergine (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1967)
Behold a Pale Horse(1964)
Midcredits score: 71st percentile of all films
The Empty Canvas (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1963)
Symphony for a Massacre(1963)
Midcredits score: 87th percentile of all films
The Attic (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1963)
Beach Casanova (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1962)
Conquered City (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1962)
Peccati d'estate (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1962)
Divorce Italian Style(1961)
Midcredits score: 97th percentile of all films
Rome, 1585 (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1961)
Revenge of the Barbarians (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1960)
Esther and the King(1960)
Midcredits score: 28th percentile of all films
Midcredits score: 3rd percentile of all films
The Battle of Austerlitz(1960)
Midcredits score: 54th percentile of all films
The Giant of Marathon(1959)
Midcredits score: 18th percentile of all films
Legions of the Nile (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1959)
Midcredits score: 39th percentile of all films
Non perdiamo la testa (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1959)
The Head of a Tyrant (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1959)
Girl Merchants (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1957)
Goodbye dreams of glory (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1957)
Il padrone sono me (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1955)
Il nostro campione (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1955)
La Luciana (not in the MovieCove catalog yet)(1954)
Career shape
Star power in the 86th percentile of 239,109 people with a billed film role, over a full career of 24 titles from 1954 to 1967; peak year 1960.
Film career
Peak 1960 · steadily prominent in film for years. Film roles by billing, audience size and rating; 25+ votes. A show carries a single first-air date, so shows are not on the curve.
- 1959Screen debut· Caltiki, the Immortal Monster
Counts from TMDB across their full career, self appearances out; a title counts in every role they held on it. The ring is the typical Midcredits score (the median percentile) of the role's titles that are on MovieCove, shown from 5 scored. Billing is TMDB cast order for roles with 25+ votes, billed in the top 30.
How do Daniela Rocca's films land?
Their typical MovieCove film has a Midcredits score in the 47th percentile, the median of all 8; across their 7 films with reception data, the typical film sits in the 43rd percentile for acclaim.
- 75th and up2
- 50th to 74th2
- 25th to 49th2
- Below 25th2
Shape of the crowd
3 of their 8 titles are Mixed.
- Universally Loved1
- Universally Panned1
- Crowd Pleaser2
- Broadly Agreed1
- Mixed3
Reviewers score the acting 59/100 in their films, across 7 reviewed titles; fans 69, detractors 33. The element that speaks to their work as an actor.
Percentiles are each film's standing among all films on MovieCove; the typical film is the median, so one outlier cannot drag it. Percentiles and reviewer scores count the films IMDb credits them on, for now; the Midcredits score bands, the shape of the crowd and the two cards count their MovieCove titles, shows included (a show ranked among shows), appearances as themselves left out. A descriptor is the shape of a title's IMDb rating distribution against the catalog; "most divisive" needs a spread wider than half of all titles, and a card names only a principal credit: a craft role, and on a show a crew role or a run of episodes, never a courtesy credit or a one-off guest spot.
Who does Daniela Rocca work with?
People who share at least 2 of Daniela Rocca's MovieCove titles, grouped by what they did on them; Ennio De Concini shares the most, 4.
Directors
- Mario BavaShared titles: Esther and the King (1960), Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959), The Giant of Marathon (1959)See all 3 shared titles with Mario Bava
Writers
- Ennio De ConciniShared titles: Divorce Italian Style (1961), Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960), Esther and the King (1960), The Giant of Marathon (1959)See all 4 shared titles with Ennio De Concini
- Augusto FrassinettiShared titles: Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960), The Giant of Marathon (1959)See all 2 shared titles with Augusto Frassinetti
Actors
- Folco LulliShared titles: Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960), Esther and the King (1960)See all 2 shared titles with Folco Lulli
- Sergio FantoniShared titles: Esther and the King (1960), The Giant of Marathon (1959)See all 2 shared titles with Sergio Fantoni
- Daniele VargasShared titles: Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959), The Giant of Marathon (1959)See all 2 shared titles with Daniele Vargas
Composers and editors
- Roberto NicolosiShared titles: Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960), Esther and the King (1960), Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959), The Giant of Marathon (1959)See all 4 shared titles with Roberto Nicolosi
- Mario SerandreiShared titles: Colossus and the Amazon Queen (1960), Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959), The Giant of Marathon (1959)See all 3 shared titles with Mario Serandrei
Producers
- Bruno VailatiShared titles: Caltiki, the Immortal Monster (1959), The Giant of Marathon (1959)See all 2 shared titles with Bruno Vailati