A page from an autograph album, neatly signed in person with a biro by Anna Magnani (1908 - 1973), the Oscar-winning Italian actress who was the first Italian and first non-native English speaking woman to win an Academy Award. After working her way through Rome's Academy of Dramatic Art by singing at night clubs, Magnani received her first screen role in The Blind Woman of Sorrento (1934) and later achieved international attention in Roberto Rossellini's Rome, Open City (1945), which is seen as launching the Italian neorealism movement in cinema. As early as 1950, Life magazine had already stated that Magnani was "one of the most impressive actresses since Garbo", and she became recognized for her dynamic and forceful portrayals of "earthy lower-class women" in such films as L'Amore (1948), Bellissima (1951), The Fugitive Kind (1960) and Mamma Roma (1962). Playwright Tennessee Williams became an admirer of her acting and wrote The Rose Tattoo (1955) specifically for her to star in, the role for which she received her Academy Award for Best Actress. Magnani married Goffredo Alessandrini, her first film director, in 1935, two years after he discovered her on stage, but they separated in 1942. She had a son with actor Massimo Serato, then fell in love with director Roberto Rossellini while working on Rome, Open City. The two split up when Rossellini had an affair with Ingrid Bergman, whom he married after she conceived a child, Isabella Rossellini. Magnani died at the age of 65 in Rome from pancreatic cancer, and thousands crammed the streets for her funeral.