The Late Gina Lollobrigida Was Radiant And Beaming, Even In Her 90s

Jun 26, 2020 by apost team

Gina Lollobrigida was an iconic actress and one of the last remaining stars from Hollywood's Golden Age. Sadly, her grandnephew, Francesco Lollobrigida, who is the Italian Minister of Agriculture, tweeted the news that she had passed away at the age of 95 on Jan. 16, 2023. He called her “one of the brightest stars of Italian cinematography and culture.” No cause of death has been reported.

One of the most famous actresses from Europe of her era, the Italian bombshell made her name as a sex symbol before she pivoted to working in other creative fields later in her life. 

At 95, Lollobrigida had a resume that was beyond impressive. While she first obtained fame as an actress, this versatile woman also achieved great success in photojournalism, and later on returned to her first loves: drawing and sculpture.

What's more, she was an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes for years, and in 2013, she auctioned off her impressive jewelry collection and donated the $5 million profits to stem-cell therapy research. 

Yet despite being a sex symbol who was known all over the world, Lollobrigida never grew accustomed to her level of fame. She said in a 2001 interview:

"I never got used to the success. Success embarrasses me, and it bothers me to be looked at. I never sought out publicity. I’ve had too much exposure. I have had 7,000 covers, and I’ve never paid for an article. Quite a good record. I never even had a publicist. The Americans couldn’t believe it."

This powerhouse of a woman continued to look for ways to challenge herself. Slowing down wasn't a part of her vocabulary, even well into her 90s. Let's take a look at her incredible life.

Born on July 4, 1927, in Subiaco, Rome, Lollobrigida was one of four daughters. While she was young she entered beauty contests and did some modeling. This was around the time she first began to appear in movies in the Italian film industry. However, her first passion was actually drawing and sculpture, which she had begun studying at Rome's Academy of Fine Arts. 

It was outside of the university that she was actually properly discovered by studio executives from Rome's famed Cinecittà Studios. She told Vanity Fair in 2015 that she didn't want to go to an audition, "but they insisted." She added:

"I refused when they offered me my first role. They insisted again. They asked my mother to convince me and said they would pay me one thousand lire. So I told them my price was one million lire, thinking that would put a stop to the whole thing. But they said yes!"

This set a precedent that meant throughout her career Lollobrigida got whatever she wanted, often without even having to ask. She recalled:

"I was successful very early ... I never had to ask for what I wanted. I just had to say yes, because they always offered me so much more. At one point, I had in my contract, in addition to 10 percent of the gross, approval of my co-star, the director, and the script. I had more publicity than anyone because I refused it — I didn’t care about it."

Nevertheless, the film industry — both Italian and Hollywood — saw a star in Lollobrigida.

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It was in the late '40s that she came into the public eye and was quickly noticed for her beauty. She participated in many beauty contests and won many of them, which led to further appearances in Italian films. She was dubbed "La Lollo" by the press and became famous for her curvy figure. While her good looks certainly kept people captivated, she also became known for her immense talent. Her performance in the romantic comedy, "Bread, Love and Dreams" (1953), put her on the map as someone who had the potential to become a major star.

The 1950s was also when she attracted the attention of Hollywood magnate Howard Hughes. He paid for her to come to Los Angeles and organized English lessons, voice lessons and more for the then-rising starlet. She was there for two-and-a-half months, during which time he made daily attempts at winning her over from her husband, Slovenian doctor Milko Skofic. But Lollobrigida was loyal to her husband. She said in her Vanity Fair interview:

"Time and time he tried to get me! But he didn’t succeed. I wanted to be correct."

She explained why she wasn't interested in Hughes:

"There was just too much difference between us ... I said to him, ‘If you lose all your money, then perhaps I’ll marry you.’ Maybe he was surprised that there was one person who wasn’t interested in his money."

Nevertheless, Hughes offered Lollobrigida a seven-year contract with RKO Pictures before she returned to Italy. Although the contract made it difficult for her to work for other studios in Hollywood for years to come, she signed it as a way of placating him. She later admitted that he continued to pursue her, for a total of 13 years. 

Lollobrigida continued to work as an actress for the next few decades, during which she continued to appear in many films in the Italian, French and American film industries, all through to the 1970s. Some of her most famous movies included "The Wayward Wife," "Woman of Rome," "Beat the Devil," "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," "Come September," "Buona Sera Mrs. Campbell" and more.

She starred opposite some of the biggest names from the Golden Age of Hollywood, including Humphrey Bogart, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Errol Flynn, Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson. As a well-known Italian bombshell, she was even rumored to have a rivalry with Sophia Loren. However, Lollobrigida revealed that no such thing ever existed, and it was actually something that Loren and her publicists allegedly dreamed up. She told Vanity Fair:

"She and her press agents started this ‘rivalry’ with me — and she hasn’t stopped for 50 years. It was really boring for me. I had enough of that. Even when she changed press agents — which I’ve never used — she continued it.” 

Lollobrigida added:

"We are different ... We made completely different careers. I wanted to be an artist more than anything else. I wanted a career on a high level."

After her film career slowed down in the '70s, she appeared in a few television series and she even lent her critical eye to being a judge for various international film festivals. This included being on the jury during the 8th Moscow International Film Festival in 1973, and later being the head of the jury at the 36th Berlin International Film Festival in 1986. 

After her acting career slowly dissipated into the background, this Italian beauty didn't fade along with it. Her ambition led her to an eventful and successful career as a photojournalist. In fact, she became known for her eye behind the camera and ended up photographing some of the most famous people in the world, including Audrey Hepburn, Henry Kissinger, Paul Newman, Salvador Dali and Ella Fitzgerald. Her career as a photojournalist even saw her secure an interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

In a 2001 interview with Alain Elkann, the actress-turned-photojournalist explained how she made the career jump. She said that she "never stopped" acting, but rather she ended up "taking photographs because (she) wanted to do fewer films." She elaborated:

"I began working with Time Life. I did a book on Italy, and I came to realize how creative photography is, and this is how I fell in love with it. I took photographs for thirty years. Observing is more interesting than being observed. You learn about yourself by seeking out others."

She released a number of photography books, including "Italia Mia," which featured photos she'd taken across Italy, "Filippine," which included photos taken in the Philippines, and "Magica Innocenza," a book with children and animals as her subjects. 

But not content resting on her laurels, Lollobrigida slowly stopped her photojournalism work and finally returned to her first love, drawing and sculpture. She had a studio in the Italian city of Pietrasanta and she described it as "the perfect place for my work." She explained in the same interview:

"More than ten years ago, I began to dedicate myself to my old loves — sculpture and painting, which I had abandoned as a young girl when I attended the Fine Arts Academy in Rome." 

When she was asked why she didn't become a painter or sculptor when she was young, Lollobrigida said in an interview, "Fate took me in a different direction" before she explained the story of being pursued by studio executives to begin her career. Indeed she had a brilliant career, but her first love of drawing and sculpture beckoned in the early '90s when she was already in her 60s. She spoke proudly of her work:

"In 1992, I was invited to the Expo in Seville, and I made a child flying happily on an eagle. French President Mitterrand really admired this statue, and, shortly thereafter, he awarded me with the Légion d’honneur, which was an immense pleasure for me."

When asked about what interested her about sculpture, she said:

"I’m not only interested in form. I want there to be feeling and spirituality in my work as well. With my sculptures, I wanted to interpret the golden age of 1950s cinema that I had experienced, so joyous and full of imagination. I did this by bringing that feeling back in my portraits of some of the most famous personalities."

She added: 

"Finally, I’m doing what I have wanted to do from the time I was a child."

The former actress didn't let her age stop her from doing what she wanted to do in life. Even in her 90s, Lollobrigida kept churning away at projects that excited her. She even took a great interest in helping the less fortunate. Over the years, she amassed a rather impressive array of valuable jewelry and in 2013, she sold most of it and used the proceeds to donate $5 million dollars to stem cell research. 

As one of the most beautiful actresses of her time, it's no wonder that Lollobrigida was the subject of many different men's affections. Alongside Hughes, who pursued her for over a decade, Sinatra was another one of Lollobrigida's admirers. She said he "was so kind to me," before she added:

"He pursued me assiduously. He came to pick me up at the airport, waiting at the bottom of the stairs of the plane. He held a concert in my honor in Las Vegas. I was embarrassed by all of the attention, and I also felt a bit guilty. So I gave him two Dali watercolors."

But Lollobrigida remained faithful to her husband, with whom she had a son named Milko Skofic Jr. The couple remained married until they divorced in 1971. After she became a single woman, she was pursued by Prince Rainier III of Monaco, however, he was still married to Grace Kelly at the time. Lollobrigida told Vanity Fair:

"He would make passes at me in front of her, in their home. Obviously, I said, ‘No!’ ... He was burned up at me for 20 years for refusing him. But, after she died, he forgot about that, and we became friendly again."

However, she did end up marrying again in 2006 at the age of 79 to a Spanish businessman nearly half her age. But after five years together, she filed for divorce and accused him of fraud. 

Nevertheless, when Lollobrigida turned 90, she threw a huge birthday bash in Rome to celebrate and made it a point to showcase that she still had a passion for life. With everything that she had accomplished, the actress-turned-artist certainly lived life to the fullest. She told Vanity Fair:

“Life goes on ... I want the world to know.”

With her passion and zest for continuing to try new things, Lollobrigida has left behind an incredible legacy.

Are you a fan of Gina Lollobrigida? What do you think about her incredible life, during which she was an actress, photojournalist and sculptor? Let us know, then pass this on to your friends and family so they can read about her legacy too!