Goodbye to Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian cinema diva was 95 years old

Gina Lollobrigida has died at the age of 95 .

The diva of Italian cinema was born in Subiaco , near Rome , on 4 July 1927 . For some time she had been hospitalized in a clinic in Rome .

Among its best known directors Alberto Lattuada, Vittorio De Sica, Mario Monicelli, Pietro Germi, Alessandro Blasetti and Mario Soldati.

In her long career Gina Lollobrigida has received important awards , including a Golden Globe , seven David di Donatello awards, two Silver Ribbons . Among his best known films, " Pane, amore e fantasia " by Dino Risi .

A great lover of Sardinia , the actress spent numerous holidays on the Costa Smeralda .

Just a few months ago, his health conditions after breaking his femur had caused concern.

LIFE – Daughter of wealthy bourgeois (her father was a wealthy furniture manufacturer) almost reduced to poverty by the Allied bombing of her region, Gina Lollobrigida moved very young to Rome still occupied by the Nazis. The family struggles in economic hardships so much that the young Gina pays for part of her studies at the Institute of Fine Arts by selling drawings and caricatures or by appearing in some photo-novel with the stage name of Diana Loris. She has attitude, character, desire for redemption and so she almost by chance seizes the opportunity of a beauty contest to get noticed and fly towards the 1947 edition of Miss Italy in Stresa where she comes second, but conquers the public and judges . It is now legend that in those finals she had to give way only to Lucia Bosè , beating rivals such as Gianna María Canale, Silvana Mangano, Eleonora Rossi Drago instead.

He made his theater debut at just 17 and then tried his luck as an extra in Cinecittà , on the strength of a small reputation in the world of photo novels. Contrary to what is thought of her, Gina Lollobrigida becomes famous abroad before in Italy and is for many decades the only Italian diva (together with Alida Valli) loved by American directors.

THE FIRST SUCCESSES – The first to notice it is the tycoon with artistic passions Howard Hughes who in 1950 takes her to Los Angeles with the promise of a rich exclusive contract. Gina, however, has the character of a "breed horse" and quickly understands that that golden cage is not for her. She quickly packs her bags, returns to Rome, suffers the revenge of Hughes who will not let her work in America until 1956 and embraces the new Italian cinema of neorealism: she works with Pietro Germi ("The city defends itself") and with Carlo Lizzani ("Achtung bandits") in the exact middle of the last century carving out roles of vigorous popular passion in which he refines his self-taught acting by imprinting his personality on it.

“PANE, AMORE E FANTASIA” – The first personal success, however, is outside the borders: the French " Fanfan la Tulipe " with Gerard Philipe in 1952. She plays for René Clair, Alessandro Blasetti, Mario Monicelli and Steno, Mario Soldati and finally becomes a diva at home with the triumphant "Pane amore e fantasia" by Luigi Comencini (1953) – for which she will later be the unforgettable Blue Fairy in his Adventures of Pinocchio for TV – including a successful sequel always paired with Vittorio De Sica. The third episode of the series (signed by Dino Risi) will instead mark the beginning of the rivalry (much more presumed than real even if they only acted together once and late in life) with Sophia Loren . La Lollo (by now everyone calls her that) refuses the part and Sophia replaces her, as will happen several times in the following decade.

ABROAD – Meanwhile, Gina has dozens of successes abroad : she works with John Huston and Robert Siodmak, plays with Burt Lancaster and Frank Sinatra, is a magnificent Esmeralda paired with Anthony Quinn in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame", goes from Errol Flynn to Yul Brynner, accepts the challenge of dubbing himself in French and singing soprano (in "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World" paired with Vittorio Gasmann for which he wins his first of 6 David di Donatello).

OFF THE SET – Her career on the set is shorter than her artistic life only because in the early 70s she decides that her passion takes her elsewhere : she leaves the cinema (to which she will return only twenty years later) to become a photographer , taking spectacular successes in the art of portrait immortalizing stars and politicians (including Fidel Castro), fellow adventurers of his previous life and great artists. She also tries her hand as a sculptor and with her exhibitions she travels around the world.

PERSONAL LIFE – Her personal life was much more tormented: she married only once (in 1949 with the Slovenian doctor Milko Skofic with whom she had a son and from whom she divorced in 1971), then when she was 90 she revealed that she had been raped very young, explaining that this pain had marked his whole life.

In 2006 she announced that she wanted to marry the much younger Spaniard Javier Rigau, but then the marriage was denied by both and in any case canceled by the Sacra Rota. Still today battle in court with her son Andrea Milko Skofic who accuses a collaborator of his mother of having deceived her by stealing a large part of her fortune.

Until the accidental fall at home last September, with the fracture of the femur which forced her to have an operation, she lived alone in the large villa on the Appia Antica , also accepting her candidacy in the last elections, for the single-member constituency of the Senate in Latina, and in other constituencies in the proportional plurinominal system, for the "sovereign and popular Italy" list. It wasn't the first time: in 1999 his name appeared on the list of Democrats for the European elections.

Now he will continue to live his memory in the world from the star on the Hollywood Hall of Fame.

(Unioneonline/vl)