Oscar-nominated Italian actress Cortese, 96

Valentina Cortese, the stunning, Italian-born actress who achieved international fame in Europe and Hollywood during a five-decade career, has died at the age of 96.

The film and theater star died Wednesday in Milan, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

“With the passing of Valentina Cortese, Italian show business loses that last diva of cinema and theater,” said Carlo Fontana, head of the Italian Show Business Association.

Cortese (photo) was among the most glamorous Italian actresses of her era, which included Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida.

She launched her career at the height of World War II in her homeland with “The Jester’s Supper” and “Les Miserables,” which featured a young Marcello Mastroianni. She made her Hollywood splash in “The House on Telegraph Hill,” in which she played a Polish Holocaust survivor who steals the identity of a dead prisoner to make her way to America.

During filming, she fell in love with co-star Richard Basehart and married him in 1951.

Later, she became disenchanted with movie making, blaming herself for a lack of enthusiasm.

“Darling, it’s my fault, because I could have done much for myself,” she told The New York Times in 1974. “But I never followed the rules. I was a nonconformist.”

Cortese never shied from appearing in more experimental fare, such as 1972’s “Brother Sun, Sister Moon,” 1977’s “Jesus of Nazareth” and 1988’s “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen.”