Gina Lollobrigida is DEAD to me!

Doing the OP's work for him:

She had a great rack but she couldn't live forever.

MARIA!!!!!!

Several years back she auctioned off some of her fabulous jewelry collection. She got $5 million for her baubles. Much of the money went for medical research.

Mrs. Campbell . . .

I’ll always remember her Flintstones homage “Lollobrickida.”

Gina speaks of Rock Hudson @ 35:50.

Geben Sie mir Gina Lollobrigida!

[quote]Sophia Loren LITE is dead at 95.

Disrespectful.

"We are as different as a fine racehorse and a goat." -- La Lollo.

An accomplished photographer too.

I didn’t realize that she was that much older than Sophia.

Thousands of Italian-American baby girls were named Gina in the 1950s because of her stardom. Sophia, not so many.

Gina and a cast of pros make "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" a lot of fun! And at 40, Gina looked fantastic.

Later musicalized as "Carmelina."

R14, And arguably the basis for Mamma Mia.

Sophia LITE?

More like Sophie LUXE.

Miss Lollobrigida was unafraid in a way that Miss Loren never managed.

Gina believed she was a lady and didn't care if people thought her sensuality was whorish.

Sophia, however (and I love her work), had too much experience of whoredom when young and never could just let loose, and always wanted to be the lady.

However, their backgrounds were somewhat similar, except Gina had 10 years of Howard Hughes trying to destroy her career from 1950 on.

I liked Gina because you could understand her English....as opposed to Claudia Cardinale.....

I loved her in Trapeze between Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis!

So, who’s left of the Old Hollywood gals?

[quote] I loved her in Trapeze between Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis!

Simply HATED that she was between us!

Kim Novak comes to mind, r18. I think she and Sophia must be the only two major A-LIST movie stars left from the 1950s, unless you count Joanne Woodward and Leslie Caron. OK, who am I forgetting?

Ahem!

Eva Marie Saint

Ann Blyth.

I always liked the way Brett Somers sloshed out her name on "Match Game" ... Gina Lolla-bri-GEET-a.

Sophia and Shirley are only 3 years older than Jane Fonda, yet somehow I think of them as Old School showbiz, while Jane is New Hollywood.

Ellen Burstyn is even older, but she's firmly New Hollywood in my mind.

Jane’s career started at the tail end of the old Hollywood star system; she was able to successfully transition to the new landscape.

Kim Novak was never A list.

r27 Dumbest thing I've read this week.

R16 has obviously never seen “Two Women”.

The truth hurts, r28.

She better stay avay from my man, Merv Griffin, in heffen!

He alvays had ze hots for her!

"Va va voom!" he'd say, venever she valked by!

She replaced Sophia Loren in the role of Francesca Gioberti on Falcon Crest

R32, Sophia also turned down the role of Alexis on “Dynasty”.

Fuck she comes across as REALLY stupid in her comments about Rock, they basically and rightly cut her off. And if her English was that bad how did to she ever make American movies? Stupid old cunt.

Gina Lollobrigida

went to the refrigida

Got herself an apple

and some cold spaghetti

Put some salad dressing

on her cold spaghetti

And it made her think of

Anna Maria Alberghetti

"Not on my fresh salad you don't!"

And not on your fresh salad I won't

saaaaid

Ginaaaaaa

Gina pays tribute to the late, great Dalida in 1988

What do you think of Gina Lollobrigida's looks? Yes, I'm kidding.... kind of.

But I really don't understand how, even in her era, she got the "most beautiful woman in the world" label. All de-rigueur Hollywood exaggeration aside, really? She's a diluted, cookie-cutter, poor-man's Raquel Welsh/Sofia Loren/Ava Gardner (in her dreams) at best. Hell, Joan Collins exudes more heat than Ms. GL. Am I missing something? I mean, I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all of that, but to me she looks like the love child of Suzanne Pleshette and Holly Woodlawn.

She was pretty, and maybe more conventionally beautiful than Sophia, but she lacked Sophia's sick body and massive eyes. And Sophia's facial imperfections were set in such a way to make her striking.

[quote]But I really don't understand how, even in her era, she got the "most beautiful woman in the world" label. All de-rigueur Hollywood exaggeration aside, really?

"The Most Beautiful Woman in the World" or "La donna più bella del mondo" is the Italian title of Gina's 1956 film "Beautiful But Dangerous," for which she won the David di Donatello Award for Best Actress. Naturally, she was being promoted as the most beautiful woman in the world to get movie audiences interested, but there was no poll or contest crowning her as such.

La Lollo's celebrity pre-dates Sophia's by a few years, so for a time she, along with Silvana Mangano, were perhaps Italy's sexiest imports. And that short "Italian haircut" gave her a wilder edge.

Here's the fun '60s Italian pop title tune to "Mrs. Campbell"...

Pop-quiz: Which fact is true? (A) She fucked a 15 year old when she was in her 50s. (B) She fucked her nephew.

R24 Her fabulous surname was part of her appeal. Speak her name aloud and her those consonants wrap around your tongue.

R7 She gets short shrift there.

R18 She was NOT a part of the American studio industry.

R38 What do you mean "Sophia's sick body"?

Sick as in so sexy that it's sick R43.

Sick.

Jim Nabors had more rhythm.

[quote] Am I missing something?

Yes, you are, R37

All of the women we’re talking about here (Gina, Sophia, Shirley, Kim) came at the tail end of the studio system, and none of them ever really top lined movies like their predecessors. For example, Kim Novak was brought in to be a replacement Rita Hayworth, yet never achieved the level of fame and recognition Hayworth had during her peak years. I don’t care what people say about Vertigo now or whatever. Most of her movies weren’t hits and she didn’t headline them if they were.

Sophia and Shirley were both good actresses so they were able to keep their careers going on that for a long time.

R47 Still not quite getting the GL appeal, but I just added "Beat the Devil" to my watchlist, so thank you!

[quote] She had a great rack but she couldn't live forever.

Nor could she act.

I'm not convinced Lollobrigida ever worked in the USA studios.

She appeared in international productions financed and produced by American money.

Gina's peak as a movie star came about at the time of international co-productions. She herself was an unnamed producer on several of her films in partnership with American and European companies.

Was Gina as famous in the U.S. as Sophia at her peak? I was born in 1974, and feel like most people my age and older know Sophia, but Gina, not so much...

I remember this film she made with Sean Connery, WOMAN OF STRAW...not memorable save for Sean's presence and that of Johnny Mekka as her devoted servant.

R54, Sean’s furry chest was a definite plus.

[quote] Nor could she act.

She wasn't required to do that but she was an extremely decorative ornament on film.

[quote]Thousands of Italian-American baby girls were named Gina in the 1950s because of her stardom. Sophia, not so many.

Bitch!

[quote]Sophia also turned down the role of Alexis on “Dynasty”.

Big deal.

So did I.

Gina signed a seven year contract with RKO in 1950, but legal battles with Howard Hughes forced her to shoot Hollywood pictures outside of Hollywood.

Gina as Francesca Gioberti on Falcon Crest. Say what you want about Jane Wyman but she sure gave plenty of jobs to the Old Hollywood stars.

Was Jane Wyman an unpleasant person?

Tosca

S&S

[quote]Was Jane Wyman an unpleasant person?

She was a bitch!

R61 = NO. Jane Wyman was really nice on the set of Falcon Crest. There are stories she would play poker with the crew between takes and treated everyone equally.. She wasn't a snob at all. There was the infamous backstage feud between Jane and Lana Turner. Rumors were Lana was a diva on set and Jane wasn't putting up with it. Sadly by the end of Season Two the show was left with no choice but to ax one of them and Lana Turners behavior got her chopped. But Jane got jobs for Ceasar Romero, Cliff Robertson (who had been blacklisted in Hollywood), Kim Novak, Celeste Holm, Leslie Caron, etc etc. I always got the impression that Jane Wyman knew jobs were harder for the older set and tried to help out the actors from Golden Hollywood. She also never insulted Reagan or said a negative word about Nancy despite being asked countless times. She was a class act. Video. The cliffhanger that offed Lana Turner.

R54 - Johnny Mekka from Laverne & Shirley?

^ Sekka.

I truly don't understand how anyone who starred as the female lead in PICNIC, VERTIGO, BELL, BOOK AND CANDLE, THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM, THE EDDIE DUCHIN STORY and PAL JOEY, all enormous hits, could not be called a major movie star of the 1950s. No, she never reached Rita Hayworth's heights, but few did, certainly not at their home studio Columbia.

Talk about baby girls named after movie stars....I can't think of another one besides Kim who had more namesakes in the 1950s and 1960s. She was hugely popular, albeit for only a few years (1956-1960).

I saw Trapeze not long ago (mainly for Tony Curtis) not long ago and she was a pretty good villainess type.

Tonight I am watching Buena sera Mrs. Campbell, which I believe was a big hit for her.

What do you think her most popular American movies were?

Thank you R67. Sekka.

I think folks realized that Novak was not a good actress. Not really.

Kim Novak was a terrible actress. I'd be the first to admit that.

But she was a HUGE star, an icon of 1950s popular culture..

My favorite will always be Come September with Gina, Rock Hudson, Bobby Darin, and Sandra Dee.

[quote] La Lollo's celebrity pre-dates Sophia's by a few years, so for a time she, along with Silvana Mangano, were perhaps Italy's sexiest imports.

All three of them were certainly busty but I think they radiated different kinds of "sexiness".

I think Silvana had a cool beauty (despite her knife-like profile) and her career was pushed by husband De Laurentiis.

Sophia's career was pushed by husband Carlo Ponti and she generated a wild, lower class sexiness enabling her to convincingly play prostitutes and adulterers. But I wouldn't describe her as beautiful. Her wide eyes and cleft chin are downright ugly in period costume (as in 'Lady L' in 1964).

I regard Lollobrigida as the most conventionally attractive of the three. She could wear period and modern costume.

oops

Paolo Turco, her handsome young co-star in "That Splendid November," died a year ago.

She was on the Flintstones.

B the D

Gina, Ed Koch and Betty Bacall.

^ I guess that's the 1970s.

Gina and Marilyn

"My eyes are up here, Marilyn."

Gina had a nice bust but had short legs.

This article claims she popularised the "poodle cut" but I'm not sure.

"Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" used to be on tv all the time in the 70s. I loved it as a kid and it really is the perfect 1960s farce.

If you haven't seen it, you will enjoy it if you are a fan of 60s comedies.

R82, That’s columnist Earl Wilson in the middle.

Is that just one person?

R83, that article is about the Italian cut.

Earl Wilson spoils the picture.

[quote] Is that just one person? —Brina, Lola, Brigid and Gita

It's a beautiful surname and has less syllables than her younger upstart—

Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone

Damn, Yul Brynner looked great with hair at R63.

^ It seems somehow sacrilegious that Brynner continued the sword-fight that killed Tyrone.

Gina was far better in American films, particularly comedies, than Sophia. Sophia's best work were her Italian films, where she easily surpassed Gina.

Gina as the WML? mystery guest in 1964 @ 14:00.

Gina definitely popularized that Italian "poodle cut" hairdo in the early 1950s. She may not have been the first woman ever to be seen in it but she was certainly the first famous woman to sport it. Doesn't Lucy show up in a similar look when the Ricardos and the Mertzes go to Italy?

No, Lucy wore the poodle cut wig a couple of years before they went to Europe.

Sophia Loren had BIG nose and huge nostrils......Gina at least had a regular sized honker.

R96, You have a problem with huge nostrils?

Sophia had a BIG nose and huge nostrils and a big cleft chin.

Gina is much prettier playing a "twisting taunting goddess" in this melodrama.

Only on the big screen R97......it's very distracting.

Audrey Hepburn had an imperfect face too, but she was stunning, like Sophia. Although their bodies couldn't have been any more different.

Lucy's Italian cut wig was definitely inspired by Gina Lollobrigida's hairstyle.

It's funny how nowadays, so many more people are familiar with that image of Lucy but not Gina Lollobrigida who inspired it.

And the hoop earrings @R101. The bigger the hoops, the bigger the whore.

Amateurs!

It's kind of funny the 1950s caricature of a wild, liberated woman. A variation of the tousled Italian cut, flimsy neckline, and hoop earrings spelled TROUBLE.

[quote] Talk about baby girls named after movie stars....I can't think of another one besides Kim who had more namesakes in the 1950s and 1960s.

Debbie Reynolds.

Ahem!

Sophia Loren was considered an international major actress, after TWO WOMEN especially because she was the first person to win Best Actor or Actress while starring in a foreign language film.

Lollobrigida was considered more of a starlet than an actress: absolutely beautiful, but limited in talent.

Miss Lollobrigida won the Silver Ribbon for Best Actress for "Pane, amore e fantasia" (1953), and scored a BAFTA nomination. She also won David di Donatello awards for "La donna più bella del mondo" (1955), "Venere Imperiale" (1962), and "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell" (1968), so she was more than just a starlet in her native Italy. She was a bona fide movie star.

Debbies in the 50s and early 60s were not named after Deborah Kerr--they were named after Debbie Reynolds.

We also had Debbie Drake in the 1960s.

I was born in 1949 before the emergence of Debbie Reynolds but went to school with dozens of Debbies. Not saying they were named after Kerr but certainly not after Reynolds either. All Kims were named after Novak.

Apparently, peak Debbie was 1955.

Debbie was a doll, r111.

And she did Dallas.

Yes, r115...

I've posted on this subject on DL before but I'm always fascinated by the popularity of certain first names in the US, especially those that seem inspired by particular movie stars. Why didn't Ava or Lana become popular names in the 1940s, while Linda and Susan did, for example? Ava has finally become very popular recently. Cary and Clark were never particularly popular names for baby boys in any 20th century decade.

And if I'm reading r113's statistics properly, the name Deborah or Debbie went down in popularity with the rise of Debbie Reynold's career, lol.

Yes, R117, Debbie went down quite well

Non la conosco.

[quote]Debbie Reynold's career

Oh, dear.

How did she die?

I still think that Sophia was more compelling to look at. The sum of her parts and all of that

She tried to say her own name and swallowed her dentures.

I loved Gina. She appeared on Joanna Lumley's 'Great Cities of the World' Rome episode earlier this year, in great shape for her age. She was one of those woman I wanted to sleep with from the moment I saw her and I am a gold star gay a third of her age. I see someone said she looked like the lovechild of Suzanne Pleshette and Holly Woodlawn - lol - but then I always found Suzanne Pleshette to be more beautiful/sexy than Audrey Hepburn or Natalie Wood so... I watched Come September again last night and while it's true that she would never be accepted to Juilliard, she (and Rock) had buckets of charisma and likability that is largely missing today in the Chris' and Ryan's and Emma's that blend together in one person.

Just watched the I Love Lucy episode in Italy, and while crammed in the train they couldn’t wake up Fred until Ethel said “ Oh look, there’s Gina Lollobrigida” and Fred jumped right up to get a look…

And that episode was from 1956!

R125, Same “bit” was used in the William Holden episode, with Ava Gardner’s name.

R126 . . .

R125, Yes but the Lucy episode mentioning Lollobrigida aired the same week she died.

Gina's (sole?) grandson Dmitri at her funeral.

Sophia Loren sent flowers with her own name on them. Is that usual?

R130 I have no problem with that.

R130, The flowers are gorgeous.

R129, Her grandson Dimitri is an actor.

I wish the Meghan loons would stick to their own threads, of which there must be dozens.

I liked her! Woman Of Straw, with her and Sean Connery, Ralph Richardson and Alexander Knox...great Basil Deardon suspense film...Beat The Devil, Come September.

R134, I know, right?

[quote] great Basil Deardon suspense film.

No, Deardon should be spelled as Dearden.

It's a good suspense film with three attractive players and an intriguing music score.

Gina got top billing as she was the so-called 'woman of straw' whom Sean ignites.

R129 He is as gorgeous as her.

R137 I know how it should be spelled. I mis-typed it. Thanks for you input, though.

Basil Dearden and his partner Michael Ralph made the homosexual film called 'Victim' and that expensive indigestible campy failure called 'Saraband for Dead Lovers'.

He let himself by used by American producers trying to make English films (such as the unsatisfactory 'Khartoum')

^ **Michael Relph**

[quote] she was an extremely decorative ornament on film.

I'm sure someone has studied her films and calculated that she was the passive protagonist in all her films.

Her beauty may have been a catalyst that inflamed the action but it was a man who initiated the action.

This scene is rather farcical because it is, indeed, a French Farce.

But I think Sir Alec retains credibility as a heterosexual.

I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned that very weird story about her toy boy marrying her but really marrying another woman in another country and pretending it was Gina. There were a few crazy articles in the Daily Fail in recent years.

I see he was front row at her funeral!

This 34 year old “assistant” Andrea has her transfer her wealth to a company registered to him and bought Ferraris and Lamborghinis for himself but claimed that 90 year old Gina was driving them “psychologically” Lol This is after taking her previous toy boy to court for fraud (twice) and having a marriage to him annulled that he once claimed that never happened. If only more of this was reported in the English language her drama would fill thread after thread. Estranged from the son, her former daughter in law and her nephew. Hopefully the will is made public because I really want to know how this will shake out.

R146, He was plowing 90+ year old pussy?

Oh come on, Kim Novak and Shirley MacLaine were on the exact same level, but for some reason nobody ever defends Shirley as an “iconic figure of 50s culture.” Is it because Shirl could actually act? Or because Hitchcock’s middling Vertigo has inexplicably been reclaimed as one of the great movies of all time? It’s not even a Top Ten Hitchcock!

Shirley had a much longer time around the top than Kim too with many more critical and commercial hits.

Also she was a much, much worse actress than Rita Hayworth, who was really quite an underrated talent. I’d put her at the same level as Lana Turner except Lana was a million times more watchable.

[quote]I'm sure someone has studied her films and calculated that she was the passive protagonist in all her films. Her beauty may have been a catalyst that inflamed the action but it was a man who initiated the action.

R143 Well, I'm pretty sure you aren't the one who studied her films, because that's false. She certainly wasn't a beautiful but passive catalyst in Buena Sera, Mrs. Campbell. Far from it.

Wikipedia on Kim Novak:

"Picnic was a resounding critical and box-office triumph, and Novak won a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She was also nominated for the BAFTA Film Award for Best Foreign Actress."

She followed Picnic with The Man With The Golden Arm, and The Eddy Duchin Story, both hit films. Jeanne Eagles made money, too, and Pal Joey was another hit.

Vertigo was #11 at the box office in 1958 and Bosley Crowther in the NYT said Novak was "really quite amazing" in it. Bell, Book And Candle, and Strangers When We, were both hits. She was replaced (by Deborah Kerr) in Eye Of The Devil due to an injury sustained when she fell off a horse. She semi-retired from the screen not long after that, in 1966.

She was one of the biggest box office draws of the 50s and one of the most popular actresses with the public. She was the 9th most popular star at the box office in 1956, for instance, just beneath Marilyn Monroe at #8. Now lets stop the madness.

*Strangers When We Meet (1960)

Loved her in Fanfan la Tulipe. Really captivating.

[quote]She was the 9th most popular star at the box office in 1956, for instance, just beneath Marilyn Monroe at #8. Now lets stop the madness.

And the insanity!

R147 - It's weird. He started as her driver then moved in but as some point he had a gf and baby and they all live/lived with Gina. It's not clear if he's still with his gf. He admits in a recent interview to kissing and cuddling and loving on her but says he was providing all care - getting her dressed, getting her downstairs, cooking, travelling with her. Over the years they lived it up and my guess is he was plowing 80 something year old pussy but then became more of a carer/companion. He was in court on Friday on fraud charges. Transferred 271,00 to her mother's bank. he says gina gave it as a gift. Gina's son claims he was stealing from her. The son was largely absent and says she was a terrible mother, he was put in boarding school and she choose the toy boy 2 over family. Toy boy 1 is now team son but allegedly had a fight with someone in the clinic where she died calling himself her husband.

Translated version oh his recent interview linked.

Vanity Fair article is pretty good at explaining the battle between Gina and her son.

Gina had a great body, but a pretty, somewhat ordinary face. I like looking at Sophia more, as imperfect as her face is.