Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida[a] OMRI[3] (4 July 1927 – 16 January 2023) was an Italian actress, model, photojournalist, and sculptor.

Dubbed "the most beautiful woman in the world",[4] at the time of her death she was among the last surviving high-profile international actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.

Luigia Lollobrigida was born in Subiaco, Lazio, about 64 kilometres (40 mi) from Rome, the daughter of a furniture maker and his wife.

[9] In 1945 at age 18, Lollobrigida played a part in the comedy Santarellina by Eduardo Scarpetta at the Teatro della Concordia of Monte Castello di Vibio,[9] the smallest theatre all'italiana in the world.

[11] Her performance in the Italian romantic comedy Bread, Love and Dreams (Pane, amore e fantasia, 1953) led to its becoming a box-office success[11] and her receiving a BAFTA nomination.

[15] She played the principal female lead in the circus drama Trapeze (1956)[8] directed by Carol Reed and co-starring with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis and in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956) appeared as Esmeralda with Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo.

[9] She appeared in the French movie The Law (1959), alongside Yves Montand and Marcello Mastroianni; then, she co-starred with Frank Sinatra in Never So Few (1959) and with Yul Brynner in Solomon and Sheba (1959).

[16] In the romantic comedy Come September (1961), Lollobrigida had a leading role along with Rock Hudson, Sandra Dee, and Bobby Darin.

She co-starred with Sean Connery in the thriller Woman of Straw (1964), with Rock Hudson again in Strange Bedfellows (1965), and appeared with Alec Guinness in Hotel Paradiso (1966).

[18] Lollobrigida starred in Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell (1968) with Shelley Winters, Phil Silvers, Peter Lawford, and Telly Savalas.

She appeared in King, Queen, Knave (1972), co-starring with David Niven,[21] and in a few other poorly received productions in the early part of the decade.

[22] In the mid-1980s, she guest starred in a multi-episode arc on the television series Falcon Crest as Francesca Gioberti, a role originally written for Sophia Loren, who had turned it down.

[24] In 1997 she was in the jury at Film Fest Gent and similarly distanced herself from the Grand Prix winner The Witman Boys, which she deemed 'immoral'.

She photographed, among others, Paul Newman, Salvador Dalí, Henry Kissinger, David Cassidy, Audrey Hepburn, Ella Fitzgerald, and the Germany national football team.

[29] https://vsuete.com/italian-sculptor-gina-lollobrigida/ In 1999, Lollobrigida unsuccessfully ran for election to the European Parliament as a candidate for The Democrats, a party led by Romano Prodi.

[33] In an interview with Corriere della Sera prior to the election, Lollobrigida said she was inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's "way of doing things".

[1][45] In January 2013, she started legal action against Rigau, 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.

[7] In 2019, the Roman Rota, with the consent of Pope Francis, issued a declaration of nullity for her marriage with Rigau after a two-year review.

[52][53][54] At the end of the 2010s, Andrea Piazzolla became Lollobrigida's main collaborator,[55][56][57] general director and trustee of some Monegasque real estate and financial societies.

[58][59] In 2021, the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, at the request of her son, ruled that Lollobrigida should have a legal guardian appointed to manage her affairs and prevent predation.

Although the court determined she was mentally capable, medical evidence had indicated that there was "a weakening in her correct perception of reality" and that she was in a state of "vulnerability".

[63][64] In 2022, sports media noted that Olympic speed skating silver medalist Francesca Lollobrigida is her great-niece, though the two had never met.