Teresa Ann Savoy

About Teresa Ann Savoy

Teresa Ann Savoy, FRSA (Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce), was a British actress who appeared in a number of Italian films.

Savoy was 18 years old when she appeared in the October 1973 edition of the Italian adult magazine Playmen, using an alias of "Terry." Savoy, who fled from home at 16, was living in a hippie community in Sicily and soon came to the attention of the press.

Savoy's acting career began in 1974 when film director Alberto Lattuada gave her her first role. She played Clotilde in the film Le farò da padre (I'll Take Her Like a Father).

Her next film was in 1975 in Vizi privati, pubbliche virtù (Private Vices, Public Pleasures) directed by the Hungarian director Miklós Jancsó. The film told the story of the Crown Prince Rudolf, son of the Austrian-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, and his rebellion against his father. Savoy played the baroness Mary Vetsera, Rudolf's lover.

Savoy met Tinto Brass in 1975 and worked with him the following year in the film Salon Kitty. She played a young girl in the League of German Maidens who becomes a spy that poses as a prostitute for the SS Nazi paramilitary organization.

In 1977, Savoy played Jamilah in the made-for-TV Italian film Sandokan alla riscossa! (Sandokan to the Rescue) based on the Sandokan novels by Emilio Salgari.

In 1979, Brass directed her again as Drusilla in the controversial film Caligula.

In 1981 Savoy turned up in La disubbidienza (Disobedience) by Aldo Lado, where she played Edith, an attractive Jewish governess. The film covered events under the reign of the Republic of Salò. She worked with Miklós Jancsó again in the film A zsarnok szíve, avagy Boccaccio Magyarországon (The Tyrant's Heart) the same year.

In 1982, she had a cameo in the mini-series La Certosa di Parma (The Charterhouse of Parma). In 1984, she was in the low budget movie Il ragazzo di Ebalus (The Boy from Ebalus). In 1986, she took the part of Maria di Gallese, the first wife of the writer and poet Gabriele D'Annunzio (played by Robert Powell), in the film D'Annunzio. The same year, she appeared in La Donna del Traghetto (The Woman of the Ferry).

Savoy received the title of Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1989.

Savoy made her last film appearance in 2000 in La fabbrica del vapore (The Steam Factory), the first Italian digital movie.

Savoy died of cancer on 9 January 2017 in Milan, where she lived with her husband and two children.

In 2021, Spanish journalist and writer Martín Llade published the novel Lo que nunca sabré de Teresa (What I'll Never Know About Teresa), in which he reconstructs Savoy's life and career.