In 1950 Gina Lollobridge she was the most beautiful woman in the world. Having already distinguished herself in several beauty contests, the Italian beauty began working in films when the eccentric Hollywood producer Howard Hughes laid eyes on her. “Again and again he tried to win me over. But he didn’t succeed… There was a big difference between us. I told him, “If you lose all your money, maybe I’ll marry you.” He was probably surprised that there was someone who didn’t give a damn about his money.” The Italian star, who died yesterday at the age of 95, must have experienced countless similar incidents; for at least two decades, she was the ultimate sex symbol on and off the big screen, a popular diva able to stand alongside the male protagonists of the time. and – often – outshine them.

Hughes, whom we mentioned above, however, initially stood in the way of her career, perhaps precisely because of … rejection, using the original contract to prevent her from making films in America until 1959. However, this did not stop Lolobridge from filming her first American film in Europe, Bread, Love and Dreams in 1953, for which she even received a BAFTA nomination. The film’s commercial success also boosted her own career; this was followed by John Huston’s Stronger than the Devil with Humphrey Bogart, The Most Beautiful Woman in the World (no coincidence) and Notre Dame, where she played Esmeralda alongside Quasimodo (Anthony Quinn).

Her gypsy dance in the latest film left the male audience speechless – and more – but it was only a foretaste of what was to come in the epic “Solomon and the Queen of Sheba”, the final film of the great “Tsar Victor”. There, an Italian actress, more dazzling than ever, plays the mythical queen, and next to her is Yul Brynner as Solomon. The 1960s were just as fruitful as studios struggled to match Lolo with even more stars: Marcello Mastroianni, Frank Sinatra, Rock Hutson, Stephen Boyd, Sean Connery, Alec Guinness and more. She is even said to have missed out on a second role in Fellini’s La Dolce Vita because her husband let the script languish amid the barrage of project proposals that kept coming in the mail to her door.

Cinema, however, could not satisfy Lolobrigda’s artistic interests. This included photography and even photojournalism, which led her to portrait sessions with celebrities such as Henry Kissinger, Salvador Dali, Yuri Gagarin and Grace Kelly. However, her biggest “success” was an exclusive interview with Fidel Castro in the early 1970s, and politics did not escape her. In 1999, she unsuccessfully ran for the European Parliament for Romano Prodi’s party, and ran again last year, this time in the Eurosceptic parliamentary elections.