Italian film actress Gina Lollobrigida, who became one of the first major European sex symbols after World War II, has died. she was 95 years old.
Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano Lollobrigida’s death confirmed on social mediaHe did not say when or where she died.
Lollobrigida had already acted in more than 20 European films when she made her first English-language film. She played John Humphrey, her Bogart wife and partner in crime in her 1953 camp drama “Beat the Devil” in Houston. The attention she received for that film, and for the Italian-French period drama Fanfan La Her Tulips, released in the United States the same year, was such that she graced the cover of Time magazine in 1954.
She rose to unlicensed American movie stardom and vented her healthy desires in several high-profile films. She appeared in ‘Trapeze’ (1956) with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956), as Quasimodo’s beloved beauty Esmeralda (Anthony Quinn played Quasimodo). “Solomon and Sheba” (1959), a biblical epic with Yul Brynner. “Come September” (1961), a romantic girlfriend comedy starring Rock Hudson. “Buona Serra, Mrs. Campbell” (1968), a comedy about her unmarried mother.
However, throughout her career she continued to make more European films than American ones. , performed with men representing the continent.
The title of one film, La Donna Più Bella del Mondo (1955), earned her a Hollywood nickname. She’s the most beautiful woman in the world (she gave Elizabeth her Taylor some competition). The film, released in the United States as Beautiful But Dangerous, also earned her her first major acting award, Italy’s Oscar equivalent, David di Donatello. She even won the Donatello Award twice. “Venere Her Imperial” (1962) was a tie with Silvana Mangano and “Buona Serra, Mrs. Campbell” was a tie with Monica Vitti.
Always considered more of a sex symbol than a serious actress, at least by the American press, Lollobrigida was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress for “Pain, Amore e Fantasia” (1953). It has also been done.
After 20 years in front of the camera, she embarked on a multifaceted second career as an artist and filmmaker. She published her first photo book “Italia Mia” in 1973.
She wrote, directed and produced the documentary “Ritratto di Fidel”, screened at the 1975 Berlin Film Festival, based on an exclusive interview with Cuban Communist Party leader Fidel Castro. She is also a sculptor and in 2003 38 of her bronze works were exhibited at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow and elsewhere.
Lollobrigida was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 1993. She ran for the European Parliament in 1999 but was unsuccessful.
Liugina Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, Italy, east of Rome. She was one of her four daughters of the cabinetmaker Giovanni Lollobrigida and Giuseppina (Mercuri) Lollobrigida. During her teenage years, she studied art. However, she began appearing in small roles in 1946 after she was spotted by film director Mario Costa.
By 1949, she was a star, second most billed for “La Sposa Non Può Attendere” (“The Bride Can’t Wait”). The following year, she appeared in ‘Miss Italy’ inspired by her real life experience. She finished third in her 1947 Miss Italy pageant. (winner, Lucia Bose, and second place Gianna Maria Canale also went on to a film career. )
After her film career ended in the early 1970s, Lollobrigida appeared on European and American television, appearing in episodes of ‘Falcon Crest’ and the American TV movie ‘Deceptions’ (1985). The Duchess entertains in Venice. Her last feature film appearance was in the French comedy XXL (1997) starring Gérard Depardieu, about a Jewish family in the clothing industry.
She married Yugoslavian-born doctor Mirko Skovitch, who became her manager in 1949. The couple separated in 1966 and divorced in 1971.
In 2006, she announced plans to marry 45-year-old Spanish businessman Javier Rigau y Laforz. However, she canceled her wedding less than two months later due to reportedly overwhelming attention.
Lollobrigida broke her femur in a fall last year and underwent surgery in September to repair it. She said she was soon able to walk after that.
Lollobrigida was often outspoken in interviews. In 1969, she suggested that women pretend to be silly in front of men. He claimed he had no objection to being told he had a body.”Why should I be offended?” she said in a 1995 interview with the New York Times. “It’s not an insult.”
But she was growing philosophically with age. “Success comes with ups and downs,” she said in the same interview. I have.”
Alex Marshall contributed the report.