Gina Lollobrigida, the Italian star who made ‘Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple’ | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV
Gina Lollobrigida has died at the age of 95 in Rome on Monday having been hospitalised for “some time”, according to the Italian daily newspaper Corriere della Sera. Lollobrigida was a diva of the Fifties and Sixties, one of the last few stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood who survived into the 21st century. An international sex symbol, Gina’s beauty was admired far and wide and saw her pitted against another adored actress of the era, Marilyn Monroe.
Actor Humphrey Bogart starred alongside the late Italian actress, as well as Frank Sinatra, in the 1953 film, Beat the Devil.
The Casablanca star once made a scathing comparison between Marilyn and Gina, claiming the latter ‘made Marilyn look like Shirley Temple’, the child star.
The two women were frequently compared, particularly their respective voluptuous figures. In an article titled, “What happened when Marilyn met Gina”, their measurements were listed under each of their names.
The American columnist Earl Wilson described Marilyn as “threatening” Gina’s grip on Europe while Gina was said to also be “moving in” on Marilyn in America. He described this as “The Blonde vs. the Brunette in the Battle of the Giantesses”.
But the two were, it seems, respectful to each other, once meeting in 1954 prior to Marilyn filming parts of Seven Year Itch where she posed in the iconic, billowing, white dress.
Mr Wilson told how he brought up Marilyn — who was taking America by storm — while speaking with Gina, to which she replied: “Now you tease me. I [have seen] her in two pictures. She’s wonderful, she’s comedienne?”
Marilyn was not the only star Gina was pitted against: the Italian actress Sophia Loren was also dubbed her “rival”.
In an interview with Vanity Fair in 2015, to which Sophia declined to comment, Gina said: “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.”
READ MORE: Gina Lollobrigida in pictures: A look back at the Italian film star
She 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.”
“La Lollo”, as she was known, rose to fame starring in the Bafta award-winning film, Bread, Love and Dreams. But it was her role in Beat the Devil with Bogart that cemented her international success.
Throughout her teenage years, she had done some modelling and in 1947 earned third place in the Miss Italia pageant. Two years later, she married a Slovenian doctor Milko Skofic with whom she had a son, Milko Jr.
Then in 1955, she played Lina, a music hall singer, in the film The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Beautiful But Dangerous. Its original title “You are the most beautiful woman in the world” saw her dubbed just that.
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In the early Seventies, she began to focus on photojournalism, photographing the likes of Grace Kelly and Henry Kissinger.
Then in 1999, she ventured into politics but was unsuccessful in her bid for the European Parliament. This endeavour continued even into what was the last year of her life as in 2022 she attempted to win a seat in the Senate of the Republic in the Italian general election.
Paying tribute to the Come September star, Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri said: “A true star of Italian and international cinema has left us.
“With her films and interpretations, she has rightfully entered into the history of the country and its collective imagination. Rome, the city she loved, will remember her how she deserves.”
