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GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA (Adeline)
Born in 1927, a carpenter’s daughter, the earthy, buxom Italian beauty studied to become a commercial artist and at first earned a living as a model in fumetti (photo comic books). A beauty contest winner, she made her screen debut in 1946. Following the worldwide success of Fanfan la Tulipe, she became one of Continental Europe’s most popular stars, admired widely as “La Lollo.” The French even coined a new colloquial word for curvaceous: lollobrigidienne. She was unable, however, to appear in Hollywood films for several years because of a contract dispute with Howard Hughes. When she finally did, she achieved immediate popularity with American audiences but in the process lost much of her original unadorned sex appeal to the synthetic Hollywood glamour machine. Just the same, for many years her name remained a synonym for glamour and beauty.
Following Fanfan, Lollobrigida appeared in a series of high-profile films by top directors: René Clair’s Les Belles de nuit (1952), John Huston’s Beat The Devil (1953), opposite Humphrey Bogart, and Luigi Comencini’s hit comedy Bread, Love and Dreams (1953),
Soon the best paid actress in Europe, she starred in Robert Z. Leonard’s The World's Most Beautiful Woman (1955), Jean Delannoy’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956), with Anthony Quinn in the title role, and Carol Reed’s Trapeze (1956), opposite Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. Her career peaked in the late 50s and early 60s with Jules Dassin’s The Law (1959), John Sturges’ Never So Few (1959), King Vidor’s Solomon and Sheba (1959), and Robert Mulligan’s Come September (1961).
Lollobrigida retired from the screen in the early 70s (with a few comebacks, including the American TV series “Falcon Crest”) to pursue a career as a professional photographer and a fashion and cosmetics executive. She also directed a documentary about Fidel Castro, Rittrato di Fidel (1975). In 1999, she ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the European Parliament.
-- adapted from Ephraim Katz’s Film Encyclopedia