Soraya Esfandiary, second wife of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, played in two films: an Italian film cut in three parts directed by Michelangelo Antonioni called I tre volti (1965) ("Three Faces of a Woman"), and She (1965/I) Both films were shot a few years after Soraya (who couldn't have children) and the Shah had divorced. Despite a promising debut , she did not pursue an acting career. She wrote her memoirs published in French under the title "Le Palais des solitudes" in the 90's available on which was a reedition of her first biography and a recent novel "Princesse d'argile". Ever since her divorce, Soraya has essentially mingled in the circles of the European Gotha.
Lived with Franco Indovina after they met on the set of I tre volti (1965). The lived in Rome and their relationship ended with his death.Allegedly, the contract with producer Dino De Laurentiis forbade her to smile because the tale of the "sad empress" created by newspapers was thought to be useful for advertising the movie I tre volti (1965).As the second wife of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Persia, she was only Queen consort, while his third wife Empress Farah Diba became Shahbanu (Empress) as the Shah declared himself the Emperor of Iran and Iran an Empire during his third and final marriage.Eldest child of Khalil Esfandiary, a notable and Iranian ambassador in West Germany in the 1950s, and his German wife Eva Klein.Is portrayed by Anna Valle in Soraya (2003) (TV).Is buried in the Westfriedhof, a cemetery in Munich, Germany.
After doing military service in the Middle East, British archaeologist Holly, his valet and his handsome young friend Leo are spotted in Palestine and approached by a mysterious oriental who identified Leo by his uncanny likeness to the portrait on an ancient coin. An adventurous search for the lost Pharaonic city of Kuma proceeds relying on a recently-acquired map. Their hasty mini-expedition reaches a hidden city where the Hellenistic age is still alive. It is ruled by the supernatural Ayesha, 'She who must be obeyed', who believes Leo is is the reincarnation she waited for all those centuries of Callicrates, a companion of Alexander the Great. She offers him immortality and to share the throne as her eternal love, but it goes tragically wrong...