Meet Three-Time LIFE Cover Model Elsa Martinelli

Elsa Martinelli had three things going for her. That was the analysis of LIFE magazine when she was introduced to readers on the cover of a 1957 issue as “a triple-threat Italian beauty.”

One of her chief assets was her was looks, wrote LIFE. Another was her flair for fashion. The third was her acting ability. And indeed in 1957 Martinelli was at the beginning of a long screen career in which she would play the female lead in the relatively minor works of some major movie stars, including Robert Mitchum, John Wayne and Kirk Douglas.

After her 1957 debut Martinelli was back on the cover in 1962 modeling “a toga to shed before going to bed,” and again in 1963 for a report on new fashions from Paris.

She also spent some time in front of a LIFE camera for a story that never ran in the magazine but produced some charming images. In 1964 photographer Carlo Bavagnoli followed Martinelli as she rode around Paris on a motorbike—it looks like a Honda CZ100, the first minibike sold to consumers. In her day Martinelli was often talked about as Italy’s answer to Audrey Hepburn, and the resemblance is prominent as she scoots about the City of Lights in a manner that calls to mind the playful spirit that Hepburn showed when she gadded about a different European capital in the cinema classic Roman Holiday.

Martinelli is of course smartly dressed in these photos and they also benefit from the flavor of Paris, especially when the Champs Elysées looms in the background.

Also included in this gallery are several shots of Martinelli by another LIFE photographer, Ralph Crane. These give a glimpse of what this cover model looked like in living color.