Scacchi was born on 18 February 1960 in Milan, Italy, the daughter of Luca Scacchi, an Italian art dealer and painter, and Pamela Risbey, an English dancer and antiques dealer.[1] Scacchi's parents divorced when she was four, and her mother returned to her native England with Greta and her two older brothers, first to London, then to Haywards Heath, West Sussex.[2]
Scacchi's first on-screen role was in the first season finale of Bergerac in 1981, when she played a model who was the girlfriend of an international criminal being pursued by the eponymous detective. The following year, she made her film debut in the German film Second Sight [it].
Scacchi is fluent in English, French, German, and Italian, which has made her a popular choice for European casting directors.
Scacchi has performed in a wide range of parts in theatre. She appeared In Times Like These (Bristol Old Vic) and Cider with Rosie (Phoenix Arts Theatre, Leicester) as her film career was taking off. After making four films in 15 months, in 1985 she appeared with Mark Rylance and Kevin McNally in Airbase (Oxford Playhouse and Arts Theatre). In Uncle Vanya at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, in 1987, she played opposite Michael Gambon and Jonathan Pryce. In 1991, she played Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House in the Festival of Perth. A year later, she played the lead role in Strindberg's Miss Julie for the Sydney Theatre Company. She returned to Sydney in 1996 to play Cecilia in Sam Shepard's Simpatico. In 1999, she took the lead in Easy Virtue in Chichester, directed by actress Maria Aitken.
In 2001, Scacchi returned to Sydney for Harold Pinter's Old Times, directed by Aarne Neeme, playing Kate. In 2004, she toured Italy with an Italian production Vecchi Tempi of the same play, but this time playing Anne. In 2005, she performed at the Theatre Royal, Bath, in Thea Sharrock's production of Noël Coward's Private Lives. Back in Australia in 2008, she was nominated for a Sydney Theatre Best Actress Award for playing Queen Elizabeth in Schiller's Mary Stuart in Sydney. In that year, Scacchi also performed in Terence Rattigan's The Deep Blue Sea at the Theatre Royal, Bath, on tour and then in the West End back at the Vaudeville Theatre.[12]
Between 20 August and 12 November 2016, Scacchi played Phoebe Rice opposite Kenneth Branagh's Archie Rice in a revival of John Osborne's The Entertainer at the Garrick Theatre in London's West End. The play received mixed reviews but hers were uniformly positive.[19][20]
In June 2024, Scacchi returned to the role of Joan in Darby and Joan after the show was renewed for a second series.[21]
Personal life
Scacchi is an Italian citizen by birth. She applied for British citizenship after turning 18, but was refused and refused again on appeal;[22] she later applied again due to Brexit. She is a citizen of Italy, Australia and the United Kingdom.[23]
From 1983 to 1989, Scacchi was in a relationship with New Zealand musician Tim Finn. She had a four-year relationship with American actor Vincent D'Onofrio, with whom she has a daughter, actress Leila George.[24][25] She was previously the mother-in-law of actor Sean Penn, who was married to George from 2020 to 2022.[26]
In 1997, Scacchi began a relationship with her first cousin, Carlo Mantegazza. They have a son.[24][27][28]
Scacchi is an active supporter of campaigns and organisations that promote environmental causes. She has supported Greenpeace and Christian Aid's climate change campaign.[29] In 2009, she posed nude with a codfish to promote the documentary The End of the Line, a film exposing the effects of overfishing. She continues to lead the linked Fishlove campaign, which has seen a host of well known actors pose for photographs with a variety of fish.[30]
^Christiansen, Rupert (18 February 2010). "Bittersweet soufflé is a delight". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
^Brown, Peter (10 May 2011). "Bette & Joan". Londontheatre.co.uk. Retrieved 10 November 2012.
^Macdonald, Marianne (28 November 1999). "'Trainspotting, I'd love to do that...'". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 April 2015. Her daughter's father is the actor Vincent D'Onofrio, with whom Scacchi had a four-year relationship that ended acrimoniously not long after the baby, Leila, was born
