Biography

Marisa's sister, actress/photographer Berry Berenson (ticketed as Berinthia Perkins, Berinthia being her given first name, and Perkins being her married last name, as the widow of actor Anthony Perkins), was one of 87 victims (including 11 crew members, but not including 5 hijackers) on American Airlines flight 11 (daily scheduled transcontinental morning service from Boston Logan International Airport [BOS] to Los Angeles International Airport [LAX]), the terrorist-hijacked plane that crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Before entering films, she was one of the top fashion models of the 1960s, a favorite at "Vogue".

Best friend of Cabaret (1972) co-star Liza Minnelli.

Her father was Robert L. Berenson, a U.S. diplomat of Lithuanian Jewish descent (his family's original surname was Valvrojenski). He was related to legendary art critic Bernard Berenson, an expert in Italian Renaissance, and the basis of the "Aaron Jastrow" character, portrayed first by John Houseman in The Winds of War (1983), and second by John Gielgud in War and Remembrance (1988), both written by Herman Wouk. Her mother was Countess Maria Luisa (Marisa) Yvonne Radha (aka "Gogo") de Wendt de Kerlor. Gogo was the daughter of Swiss-French Count Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor and famed Paris fashion designer and later film costume designer Elsa Schiaparelli. Born in Rome, Schiaparelli was the daughter of Celestino Schiaparelli (1841-1919), of Italian stock, and his wife, of Egyptian stock (Her great-uncle was Giovanni Schiaparelli, an astronomer who discovered the canals of Mars). When Schiaparelli married Count Wilhelm, they relocated to Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA; where Gogo was born. He soon fled, and Elsa's career in fashion designing began. She was hugely successful in Paris, second only to Coco Chanel and she even collaborated with Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau. (Marisa herself maintained the fashion tradition, becoming a top model in the 1960s, both in Europe and in New York City, New York, USA).

She was known as "The Queen of the Scene" for her frequent appearances at nightclubs and other social venues in her youth; Yves Saint-Laurent dubbed her "the girl of the Seventies".