Lollobrigida, Gina

(1927-)

   Actress. One of the most popular and internationally renowned Italian actresses of the postwar Italian cinema, Gina (short for Luigina) Lollobrigida began appearing in films as an extra in order to pay for her singing lessons. After doing small parts in a number of minor films, her stunning looks and her acting abilities began to emerge more clearly in Giorgio Pastina's Alina (1950) and Duillio Coletti's Miss Italia (Miss Italy, 1950), the latter bringing her an offer of a seven-year contract in Hollywood from American magnate Howard Hughes, an offer that she originally accepted but soon reneged under pressure from her husband and manager, Milko Skofic.

   Having returned to Europe, she scored her first major success in France in the title role of Christian-Jacque's Fanfan la Tulipe (Fan-Fan the Tulip, 1952), which led to her being known in France simply as Le Lollo. Back in Italy she distinguished herself in Mario Soldati's La provinciale (The Wayward Wife, 1953) before scoring an even bigger hit as the sweet but wild young country girl in Luigi Comencini's Pane, amore e fantasia (Bread, Love and Dreams, 1953), a role that earned her a Nastro d'argento and a BAFTA nomination for Best Foreign Actress. The success was then repeated by her reprise of the role in the equally popular sequel, Pane, amore e gelosia (Bread, Love and Jealousy, 1954, also known as Frisky). Much in demand, both in Italy and abroad, she subsequently starred in a host of both European and Hollywood productions, including Carol Reed's Trapeze (1956), King Vidor's The Queen of Sheba (1959), and Jean Delannoy's Venere imperiale (Imperial Venus, 1962), in which she played Napoleon's sister, Paulina Borghese, in an interpretation that brought her both a David di Donatello and a second Nastro d'argento. After appearing opposite Sean Connery in Bill Dearden's Woman of Straw (1963) and in Alessandro Blasetti's Io, io, io . . . e gli altri (Me, Me, Me . . . and the Others, 1966), she received a David di Donatello and a Golden Globe nomination for her role in the film for which she is probably best remembered in America, Buonasera signora Campbell (Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, 1968), a Hollywood comedy directed by Melvin Frank.

   Following a serious highway accident in 1969 and although still very much in demand, she began to withdraw from the cinema in the early 1970s. She played the Blue Fairy in Luigi Comencini's highly acclaimed television miniseries Le avventure di Pinocchio, later released as a film (Pinocchio, 1972), and appeared with David Niven in Jerzy Skolimowski's adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's novel King, Queen, Knave (1972), but thereafter retired from cinema to follow her passion for photography.

   After having published many books of photographs, organized art exhibitions, and, more recently, been appointed ambassador for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, in 2006 she was awarded a David di Donatello for her career.

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira