Acclaimed Italian actor Claudia Cardinale, who starred in some of the most celebrated European films of the 1960s and 1970s, has died, AFP reported Tuesday. The contest brought her to the Venice Film Festival, where she came to the attention of the Italian movie industry. “The fact I’m making movies is just an accident,” Cardinale recalled while accepting a lifetime achievement award at the Berlin Film Festival in 2002. Her career in Hollywood brought only partial success because she was not interested in giving up European film. In 2000, Cardinale was named a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for the defense of women’s rights.