“The most beautiful woman in the world”: died Gina Lollobrigida

The sex symbol of Italian cinema has died at the age of 96

Gina Lollobrigida, the sex symbol of Italian cinema in the 1950s, has died at the age of 96. She was once called “the most beautiful woman in the world.”

According to Corriere della Sera, the actress was “hospitalized for a while” shortly before her death.

The Western press writes that her role in the 1953 film Shame the Devil, where she co-starred with Humphrey Bogart, brought her international fame. But in the Soviet Union, great fame came to Gina Lollobrigida with the film Fanfan-Tulip, shot a year earlier, where the Italian played in tandem with the Frenchman Gerard Philip. Actually, this was the first major success in the cinema for a girl from a furniture maker family.

In the fifties and sixties, Lollobrigida was one of the most popular movie stars in the world and starred in a large number of European and American films.

The future star was born in 1927 in Subiaco, in the mountains east of Rome. In her youth, she participated in beauty pageants, and in 1947 she came third in the Miss Italy pageant. In her entry form for this competition, she wrote that she has acting talent, but she wants to do something serious with her skills.

La Lollo caught the attention of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes, who saw her publicity photos and invited her to Hollywood for a screen test, where he repeatedly tried to seduce her, despite the fact that a year earlier she had married the Slovenian doctor Milko Škofic.

“Over and over again he tried to get me! Lollobrigida recalled in an interview with Vanity Fair. – But he didn’t succeed … It’s just that there was too much difference between us. I told him, “If you lose all your money, then maybe I’ll marry you.” Perhaps he was surprised that there was one person who was not interested in his money.

The peak of Gina’s success came in the second half of the 1950s, when she starred in the films Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, Notre Dame Cathedral and The Most Beautiful Woman in the World (in the Soviet box office Beautiful but Dangerous).

The popularity of the actress was such that a new variety of lettuce with curly leaves, bred in the 1960s, Lollo Rosso, was named after her, writes The Guardian. Though opinions differ as to whether this was a nod to her curly hair or the frilled skirts she often wore.

Lollobrigida and Škofich divorced in 1971, and she largely retired from acting and focused on photography, publishing several collections. Among those whom she photographed were Henry Kissinger, Yuri Gagarin, Grace Kelly and many other famous people. She also secured an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

The actress was also engaged in sculpture – in the early 2000s, an exhibition of her works was even held in Moscow.

In 1999, Lollobrigida unsuccessfully ran for the European Parliament for the Italian centre-left Democrats party. “I have never been involved in politics,” she said then, “but when I received the offer, I immediately said yes. … Only later did I think about why it was good. I don’t know how many votes I need. I do not know anything”.

Leaving the world of cinema, Lollobrigida lived in her luxurious villa near Rome, while leading a rather active social life, participating in charity events and traveling a lot (including to Russia).