Gina Lollobrigida

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Birth name Luigina Lollobrigida
Nationality Italie
Birth 4 july 1927 at Subiaco (Italie)
Death 16 january 2023 (at 95 years)
Awards Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur, Officier des Arts et des Lettres‎, Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic

Luigina "Gina" Lollobrigida ([ˈdʒiːna ˌlɔlloˈbriːdʒida]; born 4 July 1927) is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptor. She was one of the highest profile European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s, a period in which she was considered to be an international sex symbol.

As her film career slowed, she established second careers as a photojournalist and sculptor. In the 1970s, she scooped the press by gaining an exclusive interview with Fidel Castro.

She has continued as an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF). In 2008, she received the NIAF Lifetime Achievement Award at the Foundation's Anniversary Gala. In 2013, she sold her jewelry collection, and donated the nearly $5 million from the sale to benefit stem cell therapy research.

Biography

In 1949, she married a Slovenian physician, Milko Škofič. They had one child, Andrea Milko (Milko Škofič, Jr.), born on 28 July 1957. Škofič gave up the practice of medicine to become her manager. They divorced in 1971.

In 1969, she was engaged for a short time to George Kaufman, a New York real estate heir. During the 1960s, she also had an affair with Christiaan Barnard, a South African doctor and pioneer in heart transplant surgery.

In October 2006, at age 79, she announced to Spain's ¡Hola! magazine her engagement to a 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 6 December 2006, reportedly because of the strain of intense media interest.

In January 2013, she started legal action against Javier Rigau y Rafols, 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 said he intended to lay claim to her estate after her death. Lollobrigida accused Rigau of fraud, saying that he had earlier obtained the legal right to act on her behalf with a power of attorney, and carried out the plot to get extra power. "A while ago he convinced me to give him my power of attorney. He needed it for some legal affairs. But instead I fear that he took advantage of the fact that I don't understand Spanish ... Who knows what he had me sign."

Now retired, Lollobrigida has not made a film since 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."

Lollobrigida has lived since 1949 at her home ranch and gardens in Sicily, Italy. The property contains her personal museum. In addition, she regularly stays at her house on Via Appia Antica in Rome and at a villa in Monte Carlo. Since 2009 Lollobrigida has not allowed visitors to her home.

In 2013, Lollobrigida sold her jewelry collection through Sotheby's. She donated nearly $5 million to benefit stem cell therapy.

Lollobrigida has a habit of referring to herself in the third person.