A remembrance of Italian film actress Gina Lollobrigida, who died at the age of 95

Transcript

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida died in Rome at the age of 95 this week. She was nicknamed La Lollo, and she made dozens of movies in the United States and Europe after World War II. Here's NPR's Elizabeth Blair.

ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Gina Lollobrigida melted the hearts of major stars in the 1950s and '60s - Humphrey Bogart, Frank Sinatra, Burt Lancaster. She was a voluptuous brunette with captivating brown eyes. In the 1968 comedy "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell," Lollobrigida plays a woman who isn't sure which American soldier fathered her daughter during the war.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BUONA SERA, MRS. CAMPBELL")

NAOMI STEVENS: (As Rosa) Three fathers?

GINA LOLLOBRIGIDA: (As Carla Campbell) Yes, three fathers.

STEVENS: (As Rosa) How could such a thing happen?

LOLLOBRIGIDA: (As Carla Campbell) You weren't here during the war. You don't know how it was that last summer.

BLAIR: Before working in film, she studied painting and sculpture in Rome. She also took singing lessons and dreamt of being an opera singer. That didn't happen. But she did star as one in a movie and said it wasn't dubbed.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BEAUTIFUL BUT DANGEROUS")

LOLLOBRIGIDA: (As Lina Cavalieri, singing in Italian).

BLAIR: Lollobrigida embraced her role as a symbol of Italy, but she didn't think of acting as her life, as she told NPR in 1973.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

LOLLOBRIGIDA: When I'm work, I'm work. When I'm out of the work, I want to feel a normal person.

BLAIR: Later in life, Lollobrigida returned to visual arts, painting and photography, and she ran for political office. She recently told the Italian press she was determined to stay creative.

Elizabeth Blair, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.