Franca Valeri, an elegant, ironic and versatile actor who pioneered female comic roles in Italy's post-war years and helped the nation laugh at its foibles, has died at 100. The Corriere della Sera newspaper quoted her daughter, Stefania Bonfadelli, an opera singer, as saying that Valeri died in her sleep at her home in Rome on Sunday, nine days after her 100th birthday.

Milanese by birth but Roman by adoption, Valeri will be honored with a wake Monday at a theater in the Italian capital, Rome's City Hall announced. Beloved by Italians, especially for her roles in the 1950s to the 1970s, first on radio, then on TV and in movies, Valeri was recently toasted by many celebrities and in interviews as her 100th birthday approached.