Gianna Maria Canale (12 September 1927 – 13 February 2009) was an Italian film actress.

Biography

Canale was born in 1927 in Reggio Calabria.

In 1947, she competed for the Miss Italia beauty contest, she was runner up behind Lucia Bosè. Canale appeared in many Italian magazines after this. Her looks were compared to those of Ava Gardner. Riccardo Freda offered her a role in a movie, they eventually fell in love.

They moved to Brazil where they got married and worked in two movies. Canale however did not want to live in South America so they returned to Italy, where, often directed by her husband, she starred in many sword and hood movies, as well as horror and adventure ones. I vampiri was her last film with Freda. She retired from acting in 1964 at the age of 37.

She died in Sutri, Viterbo in January 2009.