Italian screen legend Gina Lollobrigida has died aged 95, Ansa news agency reported, according to members of her family.
Her great-nephew, Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, tweeted the news of her death, calling her “one of the brightest stars of Italian cinematography and culture”.
State media RAI also reported his death.
Oggi is a partner #GinaLollobrigida, una delle stelle più luminose della cinematografia e della cultura italian. Ineguagliabile fuoriclasse, icona di bellezza e versatilità, donna and professionista straordinaria. She will continue to live and breathe through her and her work. pic.twitter.com/fEW9gVFuEi
— Francesco Lollobrigida 🇮🇹 (@FrancescoLollo1) January 16, 2023
Along with Sophia Loren, Lollobrigida came to symbolize the natural sensuality of Italian actresses in the 1950s and 1960s.
After studying to be a painter and sculptor, Lollobrigida became a successful beauty queen and model, before making her first film appearance in 1946 with a small role in the swashbuckling adventure “The Black Eagle”.
By the early 1950s, she was a huge star in Europe. She made her English-language film debut in 1953 in John Huston’s “Beat the Devil”, opposite Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones.
She was Esmeralda to Anthony Quinn’s Quasimodo in the 1956 adaptation of “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and the Queen of Sheba to Yul Brynner’s King Solomon in King Vidor’s 1959 Technicolor epic “Solomon and Sheba”.
When film roles began to dwindle in the 1970s, Lollobrigida made a new career as a photojournalist. She has occasionally appeared in film and TV, most famously in a recurring role on the American soap opera “Falcon Crest” in 1984.
Last year, she ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Italian Senate, telling the Corriere della Sera newspaper ahead of the country’s elections.
“I was tired of listening to politicians arguing with each other and never getting to the point,” he said at the time.
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m Susan Karen, a professional writer and editor at World Stock Market. I specialize in Entertainment news, writing stories that keep readers informed on all the latest developments in the industry. With over five years of experience in creating engaging content and copywriting for various media outlets, I have grown to become an invaluable asset to any team.
