Gina Lollobrigida, a 1950s Italian cinema star known as “the most beautiful woman in the world” died in Rome on Monday, her agent said. 95.
Paola Comin was vague. In September, Lollobrigida required thigh bone surgery after a fall. She returned home and reported she resumed walking quickly.
Gennaro Sangiuliano tweeted: “Farewell to an Italian film diva of over 50 years. Her appeal will endure.”
Adieu a great schermo diva, protagonista di oltre mezzo secolo del film italiano. Its allure will endure.
Lollo. pic.twitter.com/LbHf2MMXFy
January 16, 2023—Gennaro Sangiuliano (@g sangiuliano).
In a 1954 Time magazine piece about Italian filmmaking, the diva was called a “goddess” in a drawn portrait. Lollobrigida prefers to be labeled an actress rather than an actor almost 50 years later.
After World War II, Italy began promoting a conventional Mediterranean beauty as buxom and brunette on cinema with “Lollo,” as she was affectionately known.
“The World’s Most Beautiful Woman” in 1955, “Come September,” with Rock Hudson, “Trapeze;” “Beat the Devil,” with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones, and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” which received Lollobrigida Italy’s top cinema prize, a David di Donatello, as best actress in 1969, were career highlights.
Gina Lollobrigida stars in “La Legge” (1959). (“The Law”). Corona Films/Roger Corbeau/Sunset Boulevard/Corbis/Getty Images
After the war, she worked with prominent Italian directors Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Pietro Germi, and Vittorio De Sica.
Comencini’s 1953 “Pane Amore e Fantasia” (“Bread, Love and Dreams”) and its 1954 sequel, “Pane Amore e Gelosia” were two of her most popular pictures at home (“Bread, Love and Jealousy”). Vittorio Gassman, a prominent Italian actor, played her opposite.
Lollobrigida was a talented artist, painter, and photographer who eventually abandoned film. She traveled from Russia to Australia with her camera. For 12 days in 1974, Fidel Castro hosted her in Cuba for a photo reportage.
Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927, in Subiaco, a lovely hill town near Rome, where her father made furniture. She started in beauty contests, modeling for magazine covers, and appearing in little films. She was discovered in Rome by Mario Costa.
Lollobrigida performed with Frank Sinatra, Sean Connery, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, and Yul Brynner when eccentric entrepreneur Howard Hughes invited her to the US.
The BBC highlighted Hughes’ several marriage proposals.
Rock Hudson’s rejection shocked the BBC after a lifetime of fending off Hughes and other Hollywood stars.
“I knew right away that Rock Hudson was gay, when he did not fall in love with me,” she told one reporter.
Her co-stars were Europe’s most handsome men, including Louis Jourdan, Fernando Rey, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Alec Guinness.
Lollobrigida was best known for her comedic parts in the “Bread, Love” trilogy.
Lollobrigida popularized the 1950s “poodle cut.” with thick, chestnut curls and lovely eyelashes. Gossip columnists speculated about her rivalry with Sophia Loren, another beautiful Italian actress.
For years, Lollobrigida’s romance with 34-year-old Barcelona native Javier Rigau made headlines.
“I have always had a weakness for younger men because they are generous and have no complexes,” the actress told Spain’s “Hola” magazine. In 2006, Lollobrigida, then 79, said she would marry Rigau after 20 years of courting, but the wedding never took place.
In 1971, she divorced Yugoslavian doctor Milko Skofic.
According to the BBC, Lollobrigida later appeared in “Falcon’s Crest” and “Love Boat” before reinventing herself as an artist.
As legal conflicts over her financial competence raged in Rome’s courts in her final years, Lollobrigida’s name featured more often in court reporters’ pieces than in glossy magazines.
Lollobrigida recounted on her website how her family moved to Rome after World War II bombings destroyed their home. Her two sisters worked as movie theater ushers so she could study sculpture and painting at an arts high school.
»Gina Lollobrigida, the “the most beautiful woman in the world,” passes away at the age of 95«