How Did Nieves Navarro Go From Spaghetti Westerns to Giallo Sexy Icon?

 

Born in Almería, Spain, Nieves Navarro began her film career in the 1960s and quickly became a familiar face in Italian genre cinema. Her early screen appearances included some of the era's best-known Spaghetti Westerns, establishing her as a distinctive presence long before she became internationally associated with the giallo films of the 1970s.

Her feature-film debut came with A Pistol for Ringo (1965), followed by The Return of Ringo (1965). She continued working in the genre with The Big Gundown (1966) and Long Days of Vengeance (1967), building a filmography that connected her Spanish origins with the flourishing Italian Western industry.

By the end of the decade, Nieves Navarro had already established herself in Italian cinema. Her early Western roles would eventually lead to another defining chapter of her career—and the adoption of the name Susan Scott.

How Did Nieves Navarro Become Susan Scott, and How Did Her 1970s Roles Change?

The 1970s marked a decisive transformation in the career of Nieves Navarro. Having established herself in Italian Westerns during the previous decade, she increasingly appeared under the name Susan Scott, taking on roles that combined mystery, danger, glamour and sexuality. Her work with director Luciano Ercoli placed her at the center of three distinctive giallo films: Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970), Death Walks on High Heels (1971), and Death Walks at Midnight (1972).

In Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion, Navarro played Minou, a woman drawn into a dangerous web of blackmail and murder. The role still demanded dramatic involvement as well as the sophisticated screen presence that would increasingly become associated with Susan Scott.

With Death Walks on High Heels, she played Nicole Rochard, a Parisian dancer whose life becomes entangled with a mysterious murder investigation. The character's profession, glamorous appearance and vulnerability allowed the film to combine the conventions of the giallo thriller with a more overtly sensual style.

A year later, in Death Walks at Midnight, she portrayed Valentina, a woman who becomes involved in a terrifying chain of events after witnessing what she believes to be a murder. Again, Navarro was not simply a decorative presence: the character drives much of the mystery and remains at the center of the film's suspense.

But as the 1970s progressed, the balance of her roles began to change. Films increasingly emphasized Susan Scott's sensual image, with romantic and provocative scenes becoming a more prominent part of her screen persona. The transition can be seen in the movement from the suspense-driven characters of her early-1970s gialli toward later Italian productions in which glamour, eroticism and physical attraction occupied a greater part of the storytelling.

This evolution raises an interesting question about Nieves Navarro's career: was Susan Scott increasingly being cast for the dramatic characters she could play, or was the industry becoming more interested in the seductive image she had developed on screen?

The distinction is important. Rather than assuming that Navarro herself regarded this transition negatively, her career can be examined through the films and characters she actually played. By the middle and later years of the 1970s, Susan Scott had become closely identified with a particular kind of Italian genre cinema—one in which mystery, violence, glamour and eroticism increasingly existed side by side.

Why Did Susan Scott Become a Co-Star Rather Than the Leading Lady of Italian Erotic Comedy?

As Nieves Navarro, she had already built a substantial career in Italian genre cinema. But during the 1970s, as she increasingly appeared as Susan Scott, her career moved into Italian comedy, erotic comedy and more openly sensual productions. In these films, she was often part of an ensemble of attractive and recognizable performers rather than being positioned as the single female star.

This distinction becomes particularly interesting when her career is compared with actresses such as Edwige Fenech and Barbara Bouchet, who became two of the most recognizable female faces of Italian erotic comedy during the period. Their names were frequently used as major attractions in films that were built around their screen personas, while Susan Scott more often occupied a supporting or co-starring position within the ensemble.

That does not make her contribution less significant. In fact, Nieves Navarro brought something different to these productions: the experience of an actress who had already worked extensively in Spaghetti Westerns, giallo thrillers and dramatic genre films. Her screen image could move between sophistication, mystery and sensuality, allowing her to fit naturally into the increasingly provocative Italian cinema of the 1970s.

The change was also visible in the kinds of characters she was offered. The psychologically threatened women and central mystery figures of films such as Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion, Death Walks on High Heels and Death Walks at Midnight gradually gave way to roles in which glamour, sexuality and comic situations became more important elements of the performance.

For Susan Scott, this was not simply a change of costume or screen image. It represented a broader transformation in Italian popular cinema, where actresses could move between the giallo, comedy, crime films and erotic productions with remarkable fluidity.

And while Edwige Fenech and Barbara Bouchet became particularly prominent representatives of this new erotic-comedy culture, Nieves Navarro followed her own path through it—sometimes as a leading woman, sometimes as a co-star, and increasingly as an actress whose sensual screen persona became inseparable from the films in which she appeared.

Did Erotic Exploitation Change Susan Scott's Career — From Respected Actress to Sex Symbol?

By the second half of the 1970s, the career of Nieves Navarro, now firmly established under the name Susan Scott, entered a very different phase. The decline of the Italian giallo coincided with the extraordinary popularity of erotic cinema, and Navarro followed the market into a series of increasingly provocative productions. In a later interview, she was remarkably direct about the reason: the giallo was fading, these new films were becoming fashionable, and “these were the jobs they offered.”

One of the clearest examples was Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977), directed by Joe D'Amato. Navarro played Maggie McKenzie, appearing under the Susan Scott name, while Laura Gemser occupied the title role of Emanuelle. The film combined the popular Emanuelle formula with cannibal-horror imagery, violence and explicit eroticism.

Here, the difference between Susan Scott and the principal star of the series becomes significant. Navarro was an experienced actress with more than a decade of Italian cinema behind her, but she was increasingly being placed inside films whose principal commercial attraction was their combination of sexuality, violence and exploitation. Her character was part of that world rather than the sole dramatic center of it.

The pattern continued into the following years. In Orgasmo Nero (1980), directed by Joe D'Amato, Navarro played Helen, opposite Richard Harrison as Paul and Lucia Ramirez as Haini. The film combined adult sexuality with horror and exploitation elements, and its later alternate title was Sex and Black Magic.

What makes this period particularly revealing is what Nieves Navarro herself said about it years later. She explained that she regarded acting as a job, much as she had regarded modeling, and that she had to accept the work available if she wanted to continue working. She also acknowledged that filming intimate scenes in front of a large crew could be uncomfortable and unpleasant.

That testimony complicates the idea that her erotic films can simply be described as a personal artistic choice—or, conversely, as evidence that she was exploited against her will. The available interview suggests something more complicated: an actress adapting to the changing Italian film market and accepting the roles that were being offered to her.

Susan Scott, Edwige Fenech and Barbara Bouchet: Three Different Paths

The comparison with actresses such as Edwige Fenech and Barbara Bouchet is revealing, but it should be made carefully. Navarro herself rejected the idea that she was the unquestioned “queen” of the giallo and specifically mentioned Fenech when discussing the other actresses associated with the genre. She also recalled that she and Fenech were friends and worked together without the supposed rivalry sometimes attributed to actresses of the period.

The distinction is therefore not simply about beauty, sexuality or popularity. It is about the kinds of films and characters available to each actress at different points in her career.

For Claudia Cardinale and Sophia Loren, the 1970s demonstrate another possible trajectory for a major European female star. Cardinale continued appearing in international and prestigious productions, including The Legend of Frenchie King, The Audience, One Russian Summer and Blood Brothers. Loren, meanwhile, combined Italian cinema with international productions such as The Voyage, The Cassandra Crossing, Brass Target and the highly regarded A Special Day.

The contrast is therefore worth asking about: why did some actresses manage to carry an overtly sensual screen image into prestigious international cinema, while Susan Scott became increasingly associated with European exploitation and erotic productions?

There is no single documented answer. It may involve the changing Italian market, the genres available to her, the producers and directors with whom she worked, her professional association with Luciano Ercoli, and the opportunities—or lack of opportunities—that came her way.

What we do know is that by the end of the 1970s, the name Susan Scott evoked something quite different from the actress who had first appeared in A Pistol for Ringo and later became one of the recognizable faces of Italian giallo. Her sensuality had become an increasingly central component of her screen persona.

But did that destroy her chances of being regarded as a serious actress?

Or did the industry simply stop offering her the kind of roles that could demonstrate the dramatic range she had shown earlier?

Her own later words suggest an important clue. When asked whether she had ever wanted to work in more “artistic” films, she answered that she certainly would have—but that directors such as Fellini, De Sica and Monicelli simply did not call her.

That may be the most revealing question of all: was Susan Scott's career defined by the choices she made, or by the choices the Italian film industry made for her?

Did Susan Scott Become a Victim of Italian Exploitation Cinema?

The question is not whether Nieves Navarro suddenly disappeared. Her career tells a more gradual story.

During the 1970s, Susan Scott remained a working actress, moving through giallo, comedy, erotic cinema and exploitation films. There is no clear evidence of a major public scandal surrounding her increasingly explicit roles. Rather, these films were part of a commercially successful strand of Italian popular cinema at the time. The erotic and exploitation elements that might appear shocking from today's perspective were, within that particular film market, part of the product being sold.

Navarro herself later provided an important explanation for the transition. As the popularity of the giallo declined in the middle of the 1970s, she said that actresses and filmmakers had to move into other genres because “these were the jobs they offered.”

Her subsequent appearances in films such as Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals, Emanuelle's Perverse Emanuelle and Orgasmo Nero increasingly placed her inside a cinema built around eroticism, violence, exotic locations and exploitation. The films were not necessarily designed to showcase an actress's dramatic range. Their commercial identity often depended on the combination of sexuality, sensational situations and genre spectacle.

Yet the evidence does not show that Navarro regarded these films as a scandal that destroyed her reputation. In fact, she was remarkably pragmatic when discussing them years later. She acknowledged that she did not particularly enjoy appearing nude or performing intimate scenes, but also explained that she had to work. Contemporary retrospective accounts similarly describe her as an actress who continued accepting the opportunities available to her.

Was Susan Scott Still Being Treated as an Actress—or Increasingly as an Image?

This is perhaps the more interesting question.

By the beginning of the 1980s, the distinction between Nieves Navarro the actress and Susan Scott the erotic screen persona had become increasingly blurred. In Orgasmo Nero (1980), for example, Navarro appeared opposite Richard Harrison in a film whose identity was strongly connected to eroticism and exploitation. Retrospective genre writing has emphasized the film's sexual content rather than Navarro's dramatic performance.

But it would be too simple to conclude that these films alone destroyed her career.

The more concrete evidence comes from Navarro herself. Looking back on the 1980s, she explained that the offers became progressively smaller. She was no longer being offered leading roles—or even substantial supporting roles—but increasingly minor parts. Her words describe a career contracting from the inside: fewer interesting characters, fewer important offers, and eventually no reason for her to continue.

The Last Films of Nieves Navarro

Her return to Spanish cinema in the early 1980s did not produce the second career that might have been expected. She appeared in Honey (Dulce piel de mujer, 1981) with Fernando Rey, and later in El fascista, Doña Pura y el follón de la escultura (1983). The hoped-for return to more substantial Spanish cinema did not develop into a sustained comeback.

Then came the final stage.

In 1989, Navarro appeared in Fiori di zucca and Casa di piacere, in smaller roles. Her own explanation is unusually candid: she said that she did not like these final films and that interesting offers had stopped arriving. At around fifty years old, she decided that she had had enough of acting and formally ended her career.

This is where the word “disappeared” becomes tempting—but also misleading.

She did not vanish mysteriously.

She retired.

She and Luciano Ercoli eventually settled in Barcelona, and Navarro withdrew from her previous professional life. Her husband died there in 2015. She later made a television appearance on Spain's Cine de barrio, discussing her career, and also participated in a Barcelona tribute to the giallo.

What she did not have was the kind of extended television second act that became available to many European actors and actresses whose cinema careers were fading: regular television dramas, continuing series, variety programs or a sustained television-star persona.

That makes the ending of Nieves Navarro's career particularly unusual.

She had worked with major names, appeared in Spaghetti Westerns, headlined celebrated gialli, shared the screen with actresses such as Edwige Fenech, and eventually became associated with some of the most provocative exploitation cinema of the period.

Then the offers became smaller.

And eventually, there were no more roles worth accepting.

Did Exploitation Cinema Kill Her Career?

There is not enough evidence to make that statement as a fact.

What can be documented is a progressive change in the kind of roles being offered to her. The leading and substantial supporting parts of the 1960s and early 1970s gave way to increasingly specialized genre appearances, followed by smaller parts in the 1980s. Navarro herself identified the disappearance of interesting offers—not a scandal—as the immediate reason for ending her career.

Perhaps the tragedy, if there is one, lies elsewhere.

Susan Scott never received the opportunity to show what might have happened if the industry had continued to offer her substantial dramatic roles.

When asked whether she would have liked to work with directors such as Federico Fellini, Vittorio De Sica or Mario Monicelli, Navarro's answer was essentially yes—but those offers never materialized.

Her career therefore leaves us with an uncomfortable question:

Did Susan Scott choose exploitation cinema—or did exploitation cinema become the place where the Italian film industry chose to put her?

What Did Nieves Navarro Say About Her Career?

Perhaps the best way to end the story of Nieves Navarro, the actress known internationally as Susan Scott, is to let her speak for herself.

In November 2011, journalist Juan Pablo Torrents-Faura visited Navarro at her home in Barcelona for a short interview published in 2012. By then, she had been away from cinema for more than two decades. Looking back at the different stages of her career, Navarro was remarkably frank about the erotic films that had become part of her filmography.

Asked about her move from the Spaghetti Western and giallo films into erotic cinema, she explained:

“Más adelante de temática erótica pero porque tenía que comer, y entonces no podías elegir.”

In English: “Later, [I made films] with erotic themes because I had to make a living, and at that time you couldn't choose.”

Then she went even further:

“Si hubiera tenido la posibilidad de no hacerlas, no hubiera aceptado trabajar en ellas.”

“If I had had the possibility of not doing them, I would not have accepted working in them.”

Those words change the way we should look at the Susan Scott period. They do not prove that every erotic or exploitation film damaged her career, nor do they establish that she was mistreated on set. But they do tell us something directly from the actress herself: these were not necessarily the films she would have chosen if she had enjoyed greater professional freedom.

And then comes her explanation of what happened next:

“Ya en los 80, me ofrecían papeles que no me interesaban y al final de esta década dejé de hacer películas.”

“By the 1980s, they were offering me roles that did not interest me, and by the end of that decade I stopped making films.”

There is no dramatic announcement of a scandal here. No story of a spectacular fall from grace. Instead, there is something perhaps more poignant: the roles became less interesting, the opportunities narrowed, and eventually Nieves Navarro chose to stop.

Her memories of cinema were not entirely bitter, however. When asked what filmmaking had given her, she remembered the people:

“El equipo de cada película es como una gran familia, porque estás mucho tiempo conviviendo con ella.”

“The crew of each film is like a big family, because you spend so much time living alongside them.”

She also remembered the precarious nature of filmmaking, saying that this precariousness could bring people together.

And when asked which film she considered the best of her career, her answer was striking. It was not one of the erotic films, and not even one of the productions with which she later became most closely identified. She chose The Big Gundown (El halcón y la presa, 1966).

That answer perhaps brings the story full circle.

Before she became Susan Scott, before the giallo, before the erotic cinema and the exploitation films, there was Nieves Navarro, a young Spanish actress who had entered Italian cinema almost by accident after working as a model.

She went from Spaghetti Westerns to giallo, from giallo to erotic cinema, and eventually from increasingly limited roles to retirement.

Was she a forgotten actress?

Perhaps not.

Perhaps she was an actress whose career took a path that the industry increasingly defined for her—and who eventually decided that, when the interesting roles disappeared, it was time to walk away.

More than three decades after her final films, the rediscovery of Nieves Navarro / Susan Scott allows us to look beyond the exploitation image and reconsider the actress who existed behind it.

Frequently Asked Questions About Nieves Navarro and Susan Scott

Who was Nieves Navarro?

Nieves Navarro García was a Spanish actress and model from Almería who built most of her film career in Italy. She began appearing in films in the 1960s and became known for Spaghetti Westerns, giallo thrillers, Italian comedies and, later, erotic and exploitation cinema. She was also widely known by her Italian stage name, Susan Scott.

Was Nieves Navarro the same actress as Susan Scott?

Yes. Susan Scott was the professional name used by Nieves Navarro for many of her Italian films, particularly from the late 1960s and 1970s.

What was Nieves Navarro's first film?

Navarro recalled in her 2011 interview that her first film appearance was in Totò d'Arabia (1964), produced by the Balcázar brothers. She explained that she came into cinema after working as a model in Barcelona and obtaining a film role without formal acting training.

What were Nieves Navarro's most important early films?

Among her early Italian films were A Pistol for Ringo (1965), The Return of Ringo (1965), The Big Gundown (1966) and Long Days of Vengeance (1967). In her 2011 interview, Navarro specifically named The Big Gundown (El halcón y la presa) as the best film in which she had worked.

Which giallo films did Susan Scott make with Luciano Ercoli?

She became particularly associated with three films directed by Luciano Ercoli: Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion (1970), Death Walks on High Heels (1971), and Death Walks at Midnight (1972).

These films established Susan Scott as one of the recognizable female performers of the Italian giallo cycle.

Did Susan Scott appear in erotic and exploitation films?

Yes. As the Italian genre market changed during the 1970s, Navarro increasingly appeared in films incorporating erotic themes and exploitation elements. Among the later productions associated with her are Emanuelle and the Last Cannibals (1977) and Orgasmo Nero (1980).

In her 2011 interview, Navarro gave an unusually direct explanation for this period of her career: she said that she made erotic films because she had to make a living and could not choose, adding that if she had had the possibility of not making them, she would not have accepted them.

Did erotic cinema destroy Nieves Navarro's career?

There is not enough evidence to establish that as a fact.

What can be documented is that the nature of her roles changed and that, by the 1980s, she was being offered roles that no longer interested her. Navarro herself said that she eventually stopped making films toward the end of that decade.

The relationship between her erotic roles and the later decline of her career is therefore better understood as a question of changing opportunities rather than a proven case of one directly causing the other.

Did Nieves Navarro retire from acting?

Yes. Navarro said that during the 1980s she was increasingly offered roles that did not interest her and that by the end of the decade she stopped making films. Her final screen work came in 1989.

Why did Susan Scott stop acting?

According to Navarro's own account, the principal issue was that the roles being offered to her in the 1980s were no longer interesting to her. Rather than continuing with parts she did not want, she eventually left cinema.

Was Nieves Navarro forgotten?

Her mainstream acting career certainly became much less visible after her retirement, but Nieves Navarro / Susan Scott continued to be remembered by audiences interested in Italian Westerns, giallo and exploitation cinema.

Her later interviews and retrospectives also demonstrate that interest in her career never completely disappeared.

What did Nieves Navarro think about her career?

Her 2011 interview presents a surprisingly pragmatic view. She remembered the friendships created through filmmaking and described the crew of each film as being like a family because of the amount of time they spent together. At the same time, she was candid about the precarious nature of the profession and about accepting films because she needed to work.

What did Nieves Navarro consider her best film?

When asked directly, she chose The Big Gundown (El halcón y la presa, 1966).

Conclusion: Beyond Susan Scott

The story of Nieves Navarro is ultimately more complicated than the image suggested by the name Susan Scott.

She began as a Spanish model who entered cinema almost by chance. She became a recognizable face of Spaghetti Westerns, developed into an important presence in Italian giallo, and then followed the changing market into comedy, erotic cinema and exploitation.

That final period is what has often dominated the way her career is remembered.

But Navarro's own words offer another perspective.

She did not describe those erotic films as the fulfillment of an artistic ambition. She explained that she made them because she needed to work and because, at the time, she could not simply choose which films to accept. Later, when the roles being offered to her no longer interested her, she stopped.

And that makes her career worth reconsidering.

Was Susan Scott a victim of the exploitation cinema that made her famous? The evidence does not allow us to say that conclusively.

Was she simply a sex symbol who happened to act in films? Her earlier career—and her choice of The Big Gundown as the film she considered her best—suggests a much broader professional history.

Perhaps the most accurate description is also the simplest: Nieves Navarro was an actress whose career changed as the European film industry changed around her.

The young woman who entered Italian cinema in the 1960s became Susan Scott, the glamorous face of some of the era's most provocative films. When those opportunities eventually gave way to roles she no longer wanted, she walked away.

What remains today is not simply the image of Susan Scott.

It is the career of Nieves Navarro—an actress who moved through several of European cinema's most distinctive genres, from A Pistol for Ringo and The Big Gundown to Forbidden Photos of a Lady Above Suspicion, Death Walks on High Heels, Death Walks at Midnight, and the provocative films of her later career.

And perhaps that is the story that deserves to be rediscovered.