Gina Lollobrigida, the 1950s Italian bombshell who starred in movies together with “Fanfan la Tulipe,” “Beat the Devil,” “Trapeze” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” has died. She was 95.
In accordance to Italian news company Lapresse, Lollobrigida died in a clinic in Rome. No result in of loss of life has been cited. In September she had had surgical procedure to repair service a thigh bone damaged in a slide, but she recovered and competed for a Senate seat in Italy’s elections held past calendar year in September, although she did not win.
After resisting Howard Hughes’ present to make movies in Hollywood in 1950, Lollobrigida starred with Gerard Philipe in the 1952 French swashbuckler “Fanfan la Tulipe,” a fest winner and well-known favourite.
Her initially American motion picture, shot in Italy, was John Huston’s 1953 movie noir spoof “Beat the Satan,” in which she starred with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones. The exact same 12 months she starred with Vittorio De Sica in Luigi Comencini’s “Bread, Like and Desires,” for which she gained a BAFTA for greatest actress in a overseas film.
Lollobrigida starred in director Robert Z. Leonard’s Italian-language “The Most Gorgeous Lady in the World” (aka Gorgeous but Dangerous”), for which she acquired the finest actress award at the inaugural David di Donatello Awards in 1956.
That year, she also starred in Carol Reed’s “Trapeze,” also starring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis and lensed in Paris. Also in 1956 she shot an Italian- and French-produced remake of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” in which Anthony Quinn played Quasimodo but Lollobrigida, playing Esmerelda, was very first billed.
Far more higher-profile initiatives followed, like King Vidor’s “Solomon and Sheba,” with Yul Brynner, and WWII movie “Never So Handful of,” with Frank Sinatra, Peter Lawford and Steve McQueen, both of those in 1959 in 1961 she starred with Rock Hudson in the comedy “Come September.” By this place she was frequently shuttling among Italian, American and the occasional French output.
In 1961 she received the Golden Globes’ Henrietta Award for environment film favored — woman. The actress received a David di Donatello Award in 1963 for her get the job done in the Italo-French manufacturing “Imperial Venus.”
Lollobrigida starred with Sean Connery and Ralph Richardson in Basil Dearden’s 1964 English thriller “Woman of Straw,” but while she continued to make Italian movies, her intercontinental star began to fade until a resurgence with the 1968 comedy “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” with Shelley Winters and Phil Silvers.
Right after an 11-12 months absence from screens massive or smaller, Lollobrigida took on a recurring function on CBS primetime sudser “Falcon Crest” as Francesca Gioberti in 1984 and guested on “The Appreciate Boat” two a long time afterwards.
Lollobrigida was integrated in a cast of top rated European stars like Marcello Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Alain Delon, Anouk Aimee and Fanny Ardant in Agnes Varda’s 1995 film “Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinema.”
Luigina Lollobrigida was born in Subiaco, Italy. Modelling do the job in her youth let to participation in a series of magnificence contests, and she positioned 3rd in the Miss Italia pageant in 1947. She designed her feature film debut the 12 months in advance of with a compact role in the Italian-language “Return of the Black Eagle.”
Lollobrigida married a Slovenian health practitioner, Mirko Skofic, in 1949 he gave up his observe to provide as her supervisor, but they were being divorced in 1971.
As her movie occupation faded, Lollobrigida pursued other passions, which includes photojournalism and sculpting she also ran, unsuccessfully, for a seat in the European Parliament.
On the event of her go to to New York Metropolis in 2010, the New York Periods opened its story by gushing, “The Most Stunning Girl in the Planet walked into Harry Cipriani on Fifth Avenue in black boots and a using-hood-red cloak, and for the only individual in the home expecting her, it most likely was a trick of the creativeness, but it appeared as if the whole cafe missing its teach of thought for a second.”
At the David di Donatello Awards, she received the Golden Medal of the City of Rome in 1986, a 40th Anniversary David in 1996 and a 50th Anniversary David in 2006. She won the Berlinale Camera at the Berlin Movie Festival in 1986, a special prize for remarkable contribution to environment cinema at the Karlovy Change Movie Competition in 1995 and the job award at the Rome Pageant in 2008.
In 2018, Lollobrigida was awarded a star on the Hollywood Stroll of Fame.
She is survived by a son.