Gina Lollobrigida: Great Actress from Italy of the 20th Century

Gina Lollobrigida has a special niche for herself in Italian –Hollywood cinema. During her prime in the fifties and sixties she was a rage and had carved a special niche for herself. Her charm and sex appeal exuded from her and she was a veritable heart throb for millions of her followers.

Gina was born in 1927 and that would make her 84 years old now. Her active period in the show world was till 1996 when she retired and started devoting her time to American Italian heritage. Gina Lollobrigida despite being Italian and knowing very little English was a success on the Hollywood stage. She starred in many epic films.

Gina’s most telling and sexy scene is the Pagan dance in the film Solomon and Sheba where she starred with Yul Brynner. The Pagan dance brought out the sex appeal of Gina which transcended all boundaries of language and religion. Dressed in skimpy attire Gina does the Pagan dance with aplomb, that would shame many an eastern actress from Bollywood or Tamil films. More over none of the eastern actresses could carry of such a scene in the skimpy dress she wore.

Gina acted in many more films from Hollywood and in all of them she proved herself a versatile actress. Among her other films were Hunchback of Notre Dame with Anthony Quinn, Beat the Devil with Humphrey Bogart, Never so few with Frank Sinatra, Trapeze with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis among others.

In 1955 Lollobrigida appeared in The World's Most Beautiful Woman, for which she received the first David di Donatello for Best Actress award. Her film Come September in 1961 was a great hit all over the world where she co-starred with Rock Hudson.

During the period of the seventies and nineties, her career slowed down and finally retired from acting. She then became a activist of NIAF( National Italian American Foundation). She received a life time award   from this foundation in 2008. The foundation looks after the heritage if Italian Americans.

Gina married only once and divorced in 1971. She has one child (a son). Gina Lollobrigida is remembered for her sex appeal and histrionics on the screen. Even now almost 5 decades later Gina is remembered as a Hollywood and Italian actress par excellence. Her films like Solomon and Sheba in re-runs and on the net are still a tremendous draw. I for one have seen her re-runs and am convinced she was the most beautiful screen actress to light the scre