Rona De Ricci
Acting
Biography
Rona de Ricci was born in Italy in mid-January of 1965. After modeling in the early 1980s, she landed a supporting role in the Israeli film Rage and Glory (1984). In this same year, she moved to the United States, where she attended the Lee Strasburg Film and Theater Institute in New York City. In the late 1980s she obtained U.S. citizenship. In 1988, she appeared in the film The Penitent, as well as a Fleetwood Mac music video for the song As Long as You Follow. She later appeared in The Pit and the Pendulum (1991), her last acting project. Dissatisfied with roles she auditioned for following that film, she left the acting profession and married in 1993. With her husband she started a roofing business in California. They later had two sons, born in 2000 and 2004. In 2015 she filed for divorce, although she lived separated from her husband from that point on, the divorce never being finalized. In 2018 she relocated to Cologne, Germany. Unable to find employment, and by this time completely estranged from her husband and two children, she wrote her autobiography, Truth & Dare, published in June of 2020. Later that same month, while still living in Germany, she died, from suicide.
Known For
Set during the height of Spanish Inquisition. The beautiful and kind-hearted Maria is arrested as a witch when she inadvertently cries out in horror at the public whipping of a child. As Maria’s husband Antonio tries to save her, Torquemada, the Grand Inquisitor, determines to punish Maria with torture for the desire she inflames in him. Loosely based on Edgar Allen Poe's classic short story.
The Pit and the Pendulum
An avowed anarchist and Stern Gang hitman is sent to Jerusalem to assassinate a senior British officer creating much tension within the already troubled cell and almost brings its collapse, as the British operatives are closing in.
Rage and Glory
The Penitent (1988) isn’t faith-affirming drama—it’s lurid exploitation mocking Catholic penitents. In a devout New Mexico/Mexico village reenacting Christ’s Passion (flagellation, crucifixion), jealous husband Ramon (Raúl Juliá) joins fanatical Penitentes while his virginal wife Celia falls for ex-con friend Juan (Armand Assante), sparking deadly love triangle amid rituals. Directed by Cliff Osmond, it sensationalizes "primitive brutal" self-mortification as barbaric cult, blending sex, betrayal, and gore—not exploring redemption or biblical penance. Secular gaze shames Hispanic Catholic traditions as repressed pathology. Cherry-picks extremism to caricature piety, ignoring healthy devotion. Obscure PG-13 thriller for grindhouse fans, not believers.
The Penitent
An ancient evil lurks betwixt the walls in the castle of the Bormoncinis, and Catherine seems to have inherited the family curse along with the estate. During the Inquisition, the castle was a hotbed of religious zealotry overseen by a madly devout monk named, where women were persecuted and burned as witches. With Catherine’s arrival, old demons have awoken, and the past has come back to haunt the castle.
The Devil Inside Her
Watch the tight-knit cast and crew discuss the filmmaking process, including what it was like to live together in the castle they shot in.