Former model shot to movie fame in 1950s and 1960s, then embarked on a series of off-screen pursuits
(Tony Gentile/Reuters)
Thomson Reuters –
Gina Lollobrigida, who has died at the age of 95, shot to fame in the 1950s as a sultry Mediterranean sex symbol, then became a photographer and sculptor after stepping away from the movie world.
At the height of her fame in the 1950s and 1960s, Lollobrigida, who was known simply as “La Lollo,” was an internationally recognized epitome of Italian post-war cinema, rivalled only by Sophia Loren.
Tempestuous and impulsive by nature, she made headlines again in 2006, when, at age 79, she announced that she would marry a man 34 years her junior. She later called off the wedding, blaming the media for spoiling it.
“All my life I wanted a real love, an authentic love, but I have never had one. No one has ever truly loved me. I am a cumbersome woman,” she told an interviewer when she was 80.
Born to a working class family in a poor mountainous area east of Rome, she studied sculpture then got her break in the film world after finishing third in the 1947 Miss Italia beauty contest.
