Screen legend Gina Lollobrigida, the
former sex symbol once billed as the world's most beautiful
woman, has died at the age of 95, her family said Monday.
On her 95th birthday on July 4, Lollobrigida told ANSA she was
determined to stay creative with the photography and art
projects she turned to after her decades as a sex symbol.
The 'Bersagliera' of Italian cinema, a soubriquet given her
after an iconic feisty role, said "my birthday is a nice
milestone and I'm still working.
"I'm preparing a book (of drawings) filled with sanguines (a red
flower), sketches in red ochre, it's an important work,
demanding."
The cinema goddess, dubbed the world's most beautiful woman
after a 1955 hit film with Vittorio Gassmann, added "perhaps
I've been spoiled but I'm still working constantly, I feel as if
I still have a lot to say and I hope I get the time to achieve
everything I want to".
Speaking over a heart-shaped cake topped with strawberries, she
added "I feel very much loved, and I'm rather excited because
there are very many people who want to celebrate my birthday".
The Italian cinema writers guild awarded Lollobrigida a special
Silver Ribbon for career achievement on her birthday, noting
that the awards were inaugurated in Rome in 1946, the year her
career began.
Lollobrigida last appeared in public on November 21 when she
broke down in tears on Italian TV's flagship Sunday afternoon
variety show over a long battle over her estate pitting her
against her son and grandson after she wrote her former butler
into her will.
"I have a right to live and die in peace" sobbed 'La Lollo',
detailing her battles against son Milco Skofic and grandson
Dimitri after she said she was leaving longtime helper Andrea
Piazzolla much of her money.
The host of the Domenica In programme, Mara Venier, tried to
comfort the former star saying "Come on, I've never seen you so
low, remember you're the Bersagliera," referring to her
well-loved feisty film character.
But the diva, once voted the most beautiful woman in the world
and long a rival for that title with countrywoman Sophia Loren,
said she felt "humiliated" by the family inheritance spat and
"(didn't) think I can get through this".
Last October the supreme Court of Cassation confirmed that
Lollobrigida needs a legal guardian to stop people preying on
her wealth.
The former bombshell's son, Skofic, whose relations with his
mother have always been difficult, had asked the court to name a
guardian to protect her estate.
The Cassation Court said La Lollo was not mentally infirm but
medical experts had found "a weakening in her correct perception
of reality" and a state of "vulnerability" that would make it
possible for predatory people to gain sway over her.
Lollobrigida, whose glittering career started in 1947, said
through her lawyers that she was "disappointed but not resigned"
at a verdict she said injured her dignity.
In 1955 Lollobrigida starred in the film called La Donna Piu
Bella del Mondo (The World's Most Beautiful Woman), which became
her signature movie.
The daughter of a furniture manufacturer from a mountain
village outside Rome, Subiaco, she made over 60 films including
some during the 1990s.
Since retiring from the cinema Lollobrigida has tried her
hand as a photographer, sculptor, photojournalist and a fashion
and cosmetics executive.
The diva was divorced in 1971 after a 22-year marriage to a
Yugoslav doctor, by whom she had her son.
In 2006, at the age of 79, she married a Spanish property
entrepreneur 34 years her junior whom she had known for 22
years, but the marriage was soon annulled by a Vatican court.
In recent years increasing physical and mental fragility has
kept her out of the public eye.
A sloe-eyed, buxom brunette, La Lollo's Hollywood breakout role
came in the John Huston film Beat the Devil (1953). In 1961 she
won a Golden Globe with Come September co-starring Rock Hudson.
With her earthy good looks she embodied the prototype of Italian
beauty. Her distinctive short hairdo was especially
influential. It quickly spread across Italy in the sixties
and was referred to as the "lollo".
"I've had many lovers and still have romances. I am very
spoiled. All my life, I've had too many admirers," she said
in an interview in 2000.
La Lollo stood unsuccessfully for parliament in the September 25
general election won by the right, for whom her grand.nephew
Francesco Lollobrigida became farm and food sovereignty
minister.
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