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Vale: Gina Lollobrigida

Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida, once dubbed "the most beautiful woman in the world," has died.

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Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida, once dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world,” has died aged 95.

Her agent, Paola Comin, didn’t provide details, but the actress had surgery in September to repair a thigh bone broken in a fall.

“Lollo”, as she was lovingly nicknamed by Italians, began making movies in Italy just after the end of World War II.

Amongst her career highlights were films Come September with Rock Hudson; Trapeze; Beat the Devil, a 1953 John Huston film starring Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones; and Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, which won Lollobrigida Italy’s top movie award, a David di Donatello, as best actress in 1969. In Italy, she worked with some of the country’s top directors following the war, including Mario Monicelli, Luigi Comencini, Pietro Germi and Vittorio De Sica.

Her TV credits included Falcon Crest as Francesca Gioberti, a role originally written for Sophia Loren, who had turned it down. She also had a supporting role in the 1985 miniseries Deceptions, co-starring with Stefanie Powers. The following year, she appeared as guest star in the The Love Boat.

A 1954 cover of Time magazine, which featured an article about Italian movie-making, likened her to a “goddess”.

Source: ABC

4 Responses

  1. Gina was a class act as were a lot of actress and actors back in the days of the Hollywood classics…I agree with JamieL. They also had standards when appearing in those classics not like now days with profanity, over the top violence and explicit sex scenes we have to overlook when trying to enjoy a movie. Referring to stevie g regards The Flinstones I remember an episode called Return of Stony Curtis which was Tony Cutis voicing a guest appearance. I would be great to bring back Turner Classic Movies to Australia again. Thanks to Gina RIP.

    1. I think you might find that European cinema of the 50s and 60s was rather freer than Hollywood of the period, remembering Gina L was primarily an Italian star-remember the good old days when SBS showed classic films in foreign languages? ‘7 Samurai’, ‘La Strada’, ‘Eyes Without A Face’ etc etc-rarely done now, especially given the number of channels available to it.

  2. I think that Gina is another classic Hollywood actress that has become somewhat forgotten in recent times, (older movie fans excluded). I remember her most in the movie Trapeze co-starring with one of my all time favourite actors Burt Lancaster and of course Tony Curtis, Gina trained for the role and did the majority of her own trapeze work on screen. R.I.P. Gina.

  3. I knew that Sophia Loren turned down the Alexis role on Dynasty, that went to Joan Collins, but not about the Falcon Crest role. I think Gina resembles the Gioberti clan more so than Sophia, so in both cases it went to the right actress.
    I remember Gina Lolobrigida, being represented on the Flinstones as Gina Lolobrickita. R.I.P.

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