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Liana Orfei was primarily a circus performer. The daughter of circus owner Paride Orfei (aka 'Pippo') and his wife Alba Furide, she started in the business at the age of 2 as a pint-sized clown named Lacrima. She grew up to become an expert trapeze artist, acrobat, juggler and animal trainer, married (from 1954) to a fellow juggler named Angelo Piccinelli. Along with her two brothers, Liana organized her own three-ring circus in 1962. In 1970, this enterprise had mushroomed into the Circorama extravaganza which featured top acts and numerous exotic animals, interspersed with interludes of films projected onto a cinemascope screen.
Liana entered the movie business in 1959, followed a year later by her older sister Moira. Moira Orfei, likewise steeped in the world of circus, was popularly dubbed 'Moira of the elephants'. Both siblings went on to act in many peplum and escapist adventure films, often with 'touring' American stars. Liana provided many an exotic, sultry diversion, especially for Lex Barker in the swashbuckling trio Terror of the Red Mask (1960), Knight of 100 Faces (1960) and Pirates of the Coast (1960); and for Kirk Morris in Hercules in the Valley of Woe (1961). She was also the incongruously cast Victor Mature's Viking wife in The Tartars (1961), an Atlantean queen in The Giant of Metropolis (1961), a pirate's faithful Creole companion in Rage of the Buccaneers (1961), the ruler of an Italic tribe in The Avenger (1962) (starring Steve Reeves), an Egyptian in Queen of the Nile (1961) and a Greek in Damon and Pythias (1962). Her main contribution to the spaghetti western genre was Django Kills Softly (1967), in which a blonde Liana played the titular hero's goldmine-owning love interest, held captive by an evil town boss. In one of her final appearances (Federico Fellini's The Clowns (1970)), she played a character purportedly based on herself.
Liana retired from acting in the mid-80s but remained very much involved with the circus. Along with her producer-husband Paolo Pristipino, she staged the Golden Circus Festival in Rome's Teatro Tendastrisce from 1984, featuring many top acts.
