Gina Lollobrigida has died.
The Italian actress, best known for her roles in films such as ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and ‘Solomon and Sheba,’ has died at the age of 95, the Italian news organization ANSA revealed.
Gina was one of the biggest stars of European cinema in the 1950s and 1960s, but when her career waned, she became a photographer and sculptor.
Often described as “the most beautiful woman in the world”, Gina was one of the last surviving icons of the era, and in 2018, she performed in the Italian version of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’.
The ‘Beat the Devil’ actress studied sculpture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome before being offered an audition at Cinecittà , which was the largest film studio in Europe at the time.
He previously recalled: “I refused when they offered me my first role. So, they said they would pay me a thousand lira. I told them my price was a million lira, thinking that would put an end to the whole thing. But they said yes!”
In 1947, she came third in the Miss Italy beauty pageant and two years later she married the Slovenian doctor Milko Skofic, and the bikini photos the doctor took of his wife caught the eye of Howard Hughes, then the richest man in the world, who had recently taken control. from a major movie studio.
He located Gina and offered her a screen test, and she was surprised when only one of the tickets to the United States that she had promised her and her husband arrived. But she still traveled, only to find divorce lawyers waiting at the airport before she was taken to a luxury hotel and bombarded with proposals.
The actress saw Howard every day for almost three months, dodging his multiple passes at her, but later admitted that she enjoyed his attention.
She said: “He was very tall, very interesting. Much more interesting than my husband.”
Gina eventually signed a seven-year contract with the movie mogul before returning to Rome, making it very difficult for any other American studio to sign her.
The actress largely avoided Hollywood, working in France and Italy, with her first English-language film, ‘Beat the Devil,’ shot on the Amalfi Coast.
Gina also acted alongside Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis in ‘Trapeze,’ Errol Flynn in ‘Crossed Swords,’ Antony Quinn in ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame,’ and Frank Sinatra in ‘Never So Few,’ but they didn’t get along. , with the actress objecting to the singer’s constant tardiness on set.
The “Beautiful But Dangerous” star, named lollo rosso lettuce in her honor, divorced her husband in 1971 and largely retired from acting to focus on her photography career.
In 1999, he made an unsuccessful bid to represent the Democrats in the European Parliament.
She said of her campaign: “I’ve never been involved in politics, but when I got the offer I said ‘yes’ right away… It was only afterward that I thought why this was a good thing. I don’t know how many votes I need. I know nothing.
The actress is survived by her son, Milko, and her grandson, Dimitri.
