Lollobrigida, Italy’s wickedly witty screen goddess

One of the last icons of the Golden Age of Hollywood, Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida, whose death at the age of 95 was announced on Jan. 16, was famed for her biting wit and sensual beauty.

Bringing much-needed glamour and pizzazz to the post-war period, she stirred hearts whether as an onscreen gypsy, queen or single mother.

Humphrey Bogart, who she starred opposite in her breakthrough movie "Beat the Devil" in 1953, said Lollobrigida made "Marilyn Monroe look like Shirley Temple." 

Best known for Luigi Comencini's 1953 classic "Bread, Love and Dreams," and Jean Delannoy's 1956 "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," Lollobrigida starred with many of the leading men of the time, including Errol Flynn and Burt Lancaster.

While she had a "crazy good time" with a playful Bogart, not all the shoots were as fun.

Her co-star in wartime romancer "Never So Few," Frank Sinatra, had "zero sense of humor", she told Variety in 2018, when she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, a mountain village 50 kilometers east of Rome.

She began to study sculpture after her family moved to the capital, supporting herself by singing and modelling before attracting the attention of Italian film producers.

She said her entry into acting was an accident."I refused when they offered me my first role. They insisted again... So I told them my price was one million lire, thinking that would put a stop to the whole thing. But they said yes!" she told Vanity Fair.

Italians then dubbed her their answer to Elizabeth Taylor after her signature movie "La Donna Piu Bella del Mondo" (The Most Beautiful Woman in the World) in 1955.

She had an infamous long-standing...