Amazonian actress and sex symbol Anita Ekberg dies in Rome (1931-2015)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A week ago I was speaking with actor Robert Kerman of Cannibal Holocaust fame about his work with Mel Ferrer in Eaten Alive! Kerman and I discussed Ferrer, Ferrer’s former wife Audrey Hepburn and the movie War and Peace (1956) starring Hepburn, Ferrer and Anita Ekberg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It saddens me to state the buxom Swedish Ekberg who made Italy her home passed away on January 11. Most iconic for her role in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, Ekberg had already been acting in Hollywood films stemming from her Universal contract awarded to her being a finalist in the 1951 Miss Universe contest.

Besides the aforementioned War and Peace which was shot in Italy, some of Ekberg’s pre-Fellini films include Abbott and Costello Go To Mars (1953), the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis films Artists and Models (1955) and Hollywood or Bust (1956), and her first leading lady role in Back to Eternity co-starring Robert Ryan and Rod Steiger. She made 3 other films with Fellini, Boccaccio ’70 (1962), I clowns (1972), and Intervista (1987). She worked under directors King Vidor, William A. Wellman, Robert Aldrich, and Vittorio De Sica.  Other co-stars throughout her career included Marcello Mastroianni, Piper Laurie, Victor Mature, Sterling Hayden, Bob Hope, Ursula Andress, Frank Sinatra, Robert Taylor, Michael Caine and many others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Finally I wonder why she isn’t fond of Sophia Loren as these two videos seem to allude to some tension between the two, at least from Anita’s end.