Italian cinema star Gina Lollobrigida dies at 95

Gina Lollobrigida, the award-winning Italian film star who rose to fame in the 1950s, has died. She was 95.

Italian media reports she died in Rome, but no cause of death has been announced.

Born Luigina Lollobrigida in Subiaco, Italy, she worked as a model before placing third in the 1947 Miss Italia pageant. In 1953, she starred in her first American movie, Beat the Devil, with Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones. Later that year, she won a BAFTA for best actress in a foreign film for her performance in Bread, Love and Dreams.

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Additional film credits include Fanfan la Tulipe, Trapeze, Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell, and 1956's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, where Lollobrigida played Esmerelda alongside Anthony Quinn as Quasimodo. She also appeared on television shows, including Falcon Crest, and pursued interests like photojournalism and sculpting. She ran for a seat in the European Parliament in 1999, and last fall launched an unsuccessful bid for a Senate seat in Italy.

Lollobrigida, who received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2018, is survived by a son.