Italian actressGina Lollobrigida, who was one of the worlds most famous actresses enjoying success in Europe and Hollywood in her 1950s and 60s heyday, has died in Rome at the age of 95.
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Tributes poured in for the actress from across Italy and the world.
In the immediate period after the war and throughout the 1950s there was one face that represented Italian beauty in the eyes of the world and it was that of Gina Lollobrigida, wrote the Italian newspaperIl Corriere della Serain a tribute article.
Gina LollobrigidaChristine Pettinger/Getty Images
More than (Sophia) Loren, but also more than (Lucia) Bose, (Gianna Maria) Canale, (Silvana) Mangano or (Silvana) Pampanini, continued the article, citing a list of other female Italian cinema icons.
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Born in the hilltop town of Subiaco outside Rome in 1927, Lollobrigida started out as a model and was first scouted when she took part in the Miss Italy competition in 1947.
After several smaller supporting roles in the late 1940s, she secured her first co-starring role in Luigi Zampas comedy-dramaCampane e Martello, playing a prostitute who discovers the earnings she sent to a priest for safekeeping have been used to set up an orphanage.
Her first major breakthrough role was in the 1952 French swashbucklerFearless Little Soldier(Fan la Tulipe), in which she co-starred opposite Gerard Philipe.
Her star also continued to rise at home with Luigi Comencinis 1953 romantic comedy hitBread, Love and Dreams, in which she played an earthy young woman who catches the eye of a veteran marshal played by Vittorio De Sica.
Other Italian hits included the 1953 romantic-dramaBeautiful but Dangerous, in which she played a music hall singer who falls in love with a Russian prince, for which she won the first of seven Italian Davide di Donatello awards.
She also clinched the acting prize forVenere Imperialein 1962, a biopic about Napoleon Bonapartes sister; andBuona Sera, Mrs Campbellin 1968, about a woman who receives payments from three different men who believe themselves to be the father of her child.
At the same time, Lollobrigida was forging a career in Hollywood, breaking out internationally with John Hustons 1953 crime caperBeat the Devil, in which she co-starred opposite Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones.
She also achieved international success with the 1956 version ofThe Hunchback of Notre Dame, playing Esmeralda opposite Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo; and Robert Mulligans Italy-set 1961 romantic comedyCome September, in which she co-starred opposite Rock Hudson.
Her career slowed down in the 1970s but the actress enjoyed a revival in the late 1980s thanks to a series of appearances in TV shows includingFalcon Crest,DeceptionsandThe Love Boat.
In more recent years, Lollobrigida devoted herself to photography, art and politics, running as a candidate in the Italian general elections in September for the anti-establishment left-wing Sovereign and Popular Italy party.
