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Her real name - The actress' real name was actually Luigia Lollobrigida.

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Origins -

She was born in Subiaco, in the province of Rome, which is considered one of the most beautiful villages in Italy.

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Birthday - She was born on July 4, 1927, so her star sign was Cancer.

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Family - Lollo came from a wealthy family. Her father was a furniture manufacturer. However, he lost many of his assets due to a bombing during World War II.

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Education - The difficulties in consequence of the bombing forced the family to move to Rome, where Lollo began attending the Institute of Fine Arts in 1944.

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Soap opera magazines -

To help the family out financially, the young Lollo started selling charcoal drawings and posing for soap opera magazines.

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Beauty contests - She may not have had a very elegant dress, but she still managed to win the Miss Rome contest, and later got third place in Miss Italia.

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Her entrance into Hollywood - After some minor parts in Italian movies, movie producer Howard Hughes convinced her to go to Hollywood, where she signed an exclusive contract.

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A golden cage - But Lollo was quite rebellious, and definitely always enjoyed her freedom. So she instead decided to leave Hollywood, where contracts regulated every aspect of her life, and return to Europe.

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Successful - Luckily she didn't leave her success behind. Lollo participated in some very important films, including ‘Alarm Bells’ (1949), ‘Attention! Bandits!' (1951), 'Fanfan la Tulipe' (1952), and 'Times Gone By' (1952).

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'Bread, Love, and Dreams' -

But it was the film ‘Bread, Love and Dreams’ that pushed her to success. The world immediately fell in love with her after seeing her in the role.

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Silver Bear award - Luigi Comencini's film won the Silver Bear award in the Berlin International Film Festival, and Gina Lollobrigida received the Silver Ribbon for her role.

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'Bread, Love and Dreams' sequel - 'Bread, Love, and Dreams' was so successful that it got its own sequel, which did very well. 

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David di Donatello Award - For her role in ‘Beautiful but Dangerous’ (1955), the actress earned the David di Donatello award for best leading actress.

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Golden Globe - The diva eventually went back to acting in major US productions, and in 1961 she won a Golden Globe Henrietta Award for World Film Favorites for 'Come September,' directed by Robert Mulligan.

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A resounding "no" - But Lollo also knew when to say no: she refused to make the third chapter of 'Bread, Love, and Dreams,' and the part instead went to her rival, Sophia Loren.

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The Olympus of the stars -

Furthermore, she refused to participate in the filming of ‘The Lady without Camelias’ by Antonioni, and even said no to ‘La dolce vita’ by Fellini.

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Other talents - In the '70s, her passion for acting began to wane, and she began dedicating herself instead to other arts such as photography and sculpture.

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Photography -

Lollo also stood out behind the lens, and some of her portraits became quite famous.

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Sculpture - The diva was also successful as a sculptor, and she has shown her work in exhibitions all over the world.

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Private life - The actress' personal stories have long been the subject of rumors from the press.

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Private life - In 1949, she married the Slovenian doctor Milko Škofič, with whom she had a son, Andrea.

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Private life - Unfortunately, however, the couple got divorced in the early 1970s.

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Private life -

In 2006, at the age of 79, Lollo revealed that she had been in a long and secret relationship with a 45-year-old Spanish entrepreneur, Javier Rigau, and that she planned to marry him.

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Private life -

After that, Rigau said that he had broken it off with the actress, but there were rumors that they had a secret wedding. One of the stories that was published suggested that he had married her without her knowledge.

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Private life - In 2013, the actress dragged her ex to court on charges of fraud and deception. She claimed that she never would have agreed to the union, and he was only doing it for her money. She alleged that he had hired an impostor in order to go through with it.

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Personal life - He claimed that she had arranged the wedding and signed paperwork to be married "in absentia." Lollo eventually lost the case.

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A special gift - On February 1, 2018, the actress received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

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Icon -

And thank goodness she did, as the world of cinema wouldn't have been the same without her.

See also: Princess Diana: a fashion icon

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