Luigia “Gina” Lollobrigida was an Italian actress, model, photojournalist, and sculptor born on July 4, 1927, in Subiaco, Lazio, Italy, and died on January 16, 2023, in Rome at the age of 95. She was one of the highest-profile European actresses of the 1950s and 1960s, dubbed “the most beautiful woman in the world” and “La Lollo”. Lollobrigida was among the last surviving high-profile international actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema and later established a successful second career as a photojournalist.
Gina Lollobrigida Early Life
Luigia Lollobrigida was born in Subiaco, Lazio, approximately 64 kilometers from Rome, as the daughter of a furniture maker and his wife. She had three sisters: Giuliana, Maria, and Fernanda. After the end of World War II in 1945, the family moved to Rome, where Lollobrigida took singing lessons, did some modeling, and participated in several beauty contests.
In 1947, she placed third in the Miss Italy contest. At age 18 in 1945, she played a part in the comedy Santarellina by Eduardo Scarpetta at the Teatro della Concordia of Monte Castello di Vibio, the smallest Italian-style theater in the world.
Gina Lollobrigida Age at Death
Gina Lollobrigida was 95 years old when she died on January 16, 2023. She lived from July 4, 1927, to January 16, 2023.
Gina Lollobrigida Film Career
Early Film Work (1946-1952)
In 1946, Lollobrigida began appearing in Italian films in minor roles. In 1950, Howard Hughes signed her on a preliminary seven-year contract to make three pictures a year. She refused the final terms of the contract, preferring to remain in Europe, and Hughes suspended her. Despite selling RKO Pictures in 1955, Hughes retained Lollobrigida’s contract, preventing her from working in American movies filmed in the United States until 1959, though she could appear in American productions shot in Europe.
International Breakthrough (1953-1960)
Her performance in the Italian romantic comedy Bread, Love and Dreams (1953) led to the film becoming a box-office success and earned her a BAFTA nomination. She won a Nastro d’Argento award from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists for her role. Her first widely seen English-language film, Beat the Devil (1953), was shot in Italy and directed by John Huston, where she played the wife of Humphrey Bogart.
In 1955, her performance in The World’s Most Beautiful Woman (also known as Beautiful But Dangerous) led to her receiving the first David di Donatello Award for Best Actress. In this movie, Lollobrigida played Italian soprano Lina Cavalieri and sang all the songs, including arias from Tosca, in her own voice. She played the principal female lead in the circus drama Trapeze (1956) directed by Carol Reed, co-starring with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis.
She appeared in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956) as Esmeralda with Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo. She co-starred with Frank Sinatra in Never So Few (1959) and with Yul Brynner in Solomon and Sheba (1959).
Peak Hollywood Years (1961-1968)
In the romantic comedy Come September (1961), Lollobrigida had a leading role alongside Rock Hudson, Sandra Dee, and Bobby Darin, winning a Golden Globe Award. She attended the 1961 Academy Awards ceremony, delivering the Academy Award for Best Director to Billy Wilder for The Apartment.
She co-starred with Sean Connery in the thriller Woman of Straw (1964), with Rock Hudson again in Strange Bedfellows (1965), and appeared with Alec Guinness in Hotel Paradiso (1966). Lollobrigida starred in Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968) with Shelley Winters, Phil Silvers, Peter Lawford, and Telly Savalas, earning a Golden Globe nomination and winning a third David di Donatello award.
During this period, she rejected roles in several films including Lady L (1965), Five Branded Women (1960), and The Lady Without Camelias (1953). She later revealed regret for having refused a supporting role in La Dolce Vita (1960), explaining that the director Federico Fellini had proposed the project but her husband accidentally misplaced the script.
Television Career
In the mid-1980s, Lollobrigida guest-starred in a multi-episode arc on the television series Falcon Crest as Francesca Gioberti, a role originally written for Sophia Loren. For the role, she received a third Golden Globe nomination. She also had a supporting role in the 1985 television miniseries Deceptions, co-starring with Stefanie Powers.
The following year, she appeared as a guest star in the TV series The Love Boat.
Photojournalism Career
By the end of the 1970s, as her film career slowed, Lollobrigida embarked on what she developed into a successful second career as a photographic journalist. She photographed numerous celebrities and public figures including Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí, Henry Kissinger, David Cassidy, Audrey Hepburn, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Germany national football team.
In 1974, she obtained an exclusive interview with Fidel Castro, achieving a notable journalism scoop. Between 1972 and 1994, she published six collections of her photographs, including the 1973 title Italia Mia.
Political Activities
In 1999, Lollobrigida unsuccessfully ran for election to the European Parliament as a candidate for The Democrats, a party led by Romano Prodi. In 2020, she publicly endorsed Pope Francis’ view on LGBT rights.
In the 2022 Italian general election, Lollobrigida, at the age of 95, attempted to win a seat in the Senate of the Republic by standing for election as a candidate for the Sovereign and Popular Italy (ISP), a newly founded Eurosceptic alliance opposed to Mario Draghi, in Latina, Lazio. She was unsuccessful, as the party garnered only 1% of the constituency vote, below the 3% electoral threshold.
Gina Lollobrigida Husband and Personal Life
Marriage to Milko Škofič
In 1949, Gina Lollobrigida married Slovenian physician Milko Škofič. Their only child, Andrea Milko (Milko Škofič Jr.), was born on July 28, 1957. Škofič gave up the practice of medicine to become her manager.
In 1960, Lollobrigida moved from her native Italy to Toronto with Škofič and their son. The couple meant to solve the legal situation of their son, who was considered stateless by Italian bureaucracy. The couple divorced in 1971.
Relationship with Javier Rigau
In October 2006, aged 79, Lollobrigida announced her engagement to 45-year-old Spanish businessman Javier Rigau y Rafols. They had met at a party in Monte Carlo in 1984 and had since become companions. The engagement was called off on December 6, 2006, reportedly because of the strain of intense media interest.
In 2006, Lollobrigida and Rigau signed a prenuptial agreement and married in Spain. In January 2013, she started legal action against Rigau, claiming that her ex-boyfriend had staged a secret ceremony in which he “married” an imposter pretending to be her at a registry office in Barcelona. She accused Rigau of fraud, saying he had obtained a power of attorney to act on her behalf and carried out the plot to gain access to her estate.
In March 2017, she lost her court action but said she would appeal. In 2019, the Roman Rota, with the consent of Pope Francis, issued a declaration of nullity for Lollobrigida’s marriage to Rigau after a two-year review.
Later Years
Lollobrigida retired from filming in 1997. She told PARADE in April 2000: “I studied painting and sculpting at school and became an actress by mistake … I’ve had many lovers and still have romances. I am very spoiled. All my life, I’ve had too many admirers”.
After retirement, she divided her time between her house on Via Appia Antica in Rome and a villa in Monte Carlo. After 2009, she refused visitors to her home.
Gina Lollobrigida Net Worth
Gina Lollobrigida’s estimated net worth was $20 million as of 2022. Her wealth accumulated through her successful career as an actress, photographer, and sculptor. In 2013, Lollobrigida sold her jewelry collection through Sotheby’s and donated nearly $5 million to benefit stem-cell therapy research.
Legal and Financial Issues in Later Life
At the end of the 2010s, Andrea Piazzolla became Lollobrigida’s main collaborator, general director, and trustee of some Monegasque real estate and financial societies. In July 2020, he was charged with circumvention of an incapable person.
In 2021, the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, at the request of her son, ruled that Lollobrigida should have a legal guardian appointed to manage her affairs and prevent predation. Although the court determined she was mentally capable, medical evidence indicated there was “a weakening in her correct perception of reality” and that she was in a state of “vulnerability”.
In November 2023, Andrea Piazzolla was convicted of embezzling Lollobrigida’s millions.
Gina Lollobrigida Death
Gina Lollobrigida died aged 95 at a clinic in Rome on January 16, 2023, from renal failure and pneumonia. She was buried in her birthplace, Subiaco, Lazio. The lawyer and politician Francesco Lollobrigida, current Minister of Agriculture of Italy, is her great-nephew.
Olympic speed skating gold medalist Francesca Lollobrigida is her great-niece, and the two had met.
Awards and Recognition
Lollobrigida won three David di Donatello awards, two Nastro d’Argento awards, and six Bambi awards. She was nominated three times for the Golden Globe and won once in 1961 as World Film Favorite – Female. She was nominated once for a BAFTA award.
In 1985, she was nominated as an officer of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by Jack Lang for her achievements in photography and sculpture. In 1987, she was appointed a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. Lollobrigida was awarded the Légion d’honneur by François Mitterrand.
On October 16, 1999, Lollobrigida was nominated as a Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. On February 1, 2018, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.