Italian Actress. Regarded by film critics as one of the best actresses and known for her many main character roles in successful films. From 1963 to 1965 she worked with Dario Fo in ” Settimo: ruba un pò meno e la colpa è sempre del diavolo” and in 1966 was committed to the Teatro Stabile in Trieste. From 1967 to 1968 she starred with Luchino Visconti in “La Monaca di Monza, the “Orlando furioso” by Luca Ronconi, but her first successful was the musical comedy by Garinei e Giovannini “Alleluia brava gente”. In 1969 she made his debut at the movies in the film “Per grazia ricevuta” with Nino Manfredi and “Thomas e gli indemoniati” by Pupi Avati. In film alternated between dramatic roles in the films “La classe operaia va in Paradiso” and “Todo Modo” by Petri, “Caro Michele” by Mario Monicelli, “Oggetti smarriti” and “Segreti segreti” by Giuseppe Bertolucci, “Dimenticando Venezia”, “Il buon soldato” by Franco Brusati, to those of comedy, as ” Mimi metallurgico ferito nell’onore”, “Film di amore e di anarchia” by Lina Wertmuller and ” Aiutami a sognare” by Pupi Avati. Her career and disposition of acting remain mostly related to the world of the theater where Melato interpreted characters of great commitment in the tragedies “Medea” and “Fedra” by Euripides, and in comedies such as “Vestire gli ignudi” by Pirandello, “The Taming of the Shrew” by William Shakespeare. From 1990 she worked for television and cinema. starring in numerous works, including “Scandalo”, “Una vita in gioco”, “Rebecca”, “La dame de Chez Maxim”, “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf?”, “La fine è nota” by Cristina Comencini, “Panni sporchi” by Mario Monicelli and the last “Filomena Marturano”. During her long career she has received several prestigious awards including five “David di Donatello” prize, five “Nastro d’Argento” prize, one “Globo d’Oro”, a Gold Medal from the City of Rome, and was appointed “Commendatore dell’Ordine al Merito” of Italian Republic. Mariangela died in a Roman clinic after a long struggle against a pancreatic cancer. (bio by: Lucy Caldarelli)