Gina Lollobrigida, The Sexual Myth Of The 50s, Dies At 95

The ANSA news agency reported on Monday that Gina Lollobrigida, an Italian actress who was active from 1927 until 2023, has passed away at the age of 95. Lollobrigida’s vivacious beauty captivated the hearts of the postwar generation, and she went on to have a successful career in Technicolor Hollywood, where she met and worked with many of the industry’s biggest names.

When Hollywood was looking for Latina stars like Sofia Loren and Silvana Mangano after World War II, they looked to Italy. Gina was of the era. She began experimenting with modeling at a young age, which led to a bit part in B-movies of the day and a third-place finish in the Miss Italy competition in 1947. Because of that, she became famous.

Gina, unlike other performers who were signed by talent scouts, was signed by Howard Hughes himself. The famed film producer and billionaire went to Italy to hire Lollobrigida, and the actor didn’t think twice about relocating to the notoriously unwelcoming environment of Hollywood, despite the language barrier and the bureaucratic restrictions he faced there. This motivated the young lady to head back to Italy and try her luck in the acting industry there.

The comeback was fruitful because it coincided with Lollo’s most creative period in Italian film. In the film Fanfan, the indomitable (Christian-Jaque, 1952), she co-starred with Gérard Philipe as a gypsy beauty. Both the Cannes and Berlin film festivals honored the movie.

 

With Luigi Comencini at the helm, she had another smashing success in Bread, love and imagination (1953), the first of a series of films in which Vittorio De Sica plays the lead. Nominated for an Academy Award, the film succeeded.

During this time, she also met Milko kofi, a Slovenian doctor whom she would later marry and have a son, Andrea Milko. They tied the knot in 1949, and they stayed together till 1971. Now that she was married and had established herself professionally, Gina felt ready to make the move to Hollywood.

When she had the chance to star in a major film in 1953, she headed to Hollywood.

John Huston’s The Devil’s Mockery (1953) has become a classic in the subculture. Lollobrigida made his debut in the United States alongside Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones. When the film was released, he was welcomed into Hollywood, which at the time was dedicated to large-scale movies in full color.

Thus, she played a driven acrobat in the Trapeze circus drama, opposite Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis (Carol Reed, 1956).