Lead Image: Film Star Vintage – CC BY 2.0
Swedish, old Hollywood actress, Anita Ekberg, is best known for playing Sylvia in Federico Fellini’s 1960 film, La Dolce Vita.
… And those curves.
After winning Miss Sweden in 1950, Ekberg travelled to America to compete in the (unofficial) Miss Universe pageant in 1951 (the Miss Universe competition was made official the following year). Ekberg placed in the top 6, and while she didn’t win the crown, she did land a contract with Universal Studios.
In the 1950s, Ekberg started to gain notoriety as a pin-up, appearing in Playboy, and soon became a fixture in gossip columns for her romantic ties to Hollywood stars, Frank Sinatra, Tyrone Power (The Mark of Zorro), Yul Brynner (The King and I, The Ten Commandments), and Errol Flynn (The Adventures of Robin Hood).
Ekberg signed to Batjac Productions (John Wayne’s production company) and appeared alongside Wayne and previous vintage vixen, Lauren Bacall, in the 1955 film, Blood Alley (Ekberg’s first speaking role in a feature film).
After appearing in Paramount’s War and Peace (filmed in Rome, alongside Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn), Ekberg began to be promoted as “Paramount’s Marilyn Monroe.”
In 1959, after starring in Sheba and the Gladiator (filmed in Rome), Ekberg stayed in the city to shoot Fellini’s, La Dolce Vita, where she played, Sylvia Rank, a beautiful and unattainable actress desired by the film’s main character. In a scene praised as one of cinema’s most iconic, Ekberg jumps and plays in water of Rome’s Trevi Fountain.
You can see clips from La Dolce Vita‘s memorable Trevi Fountain scene and more of the stunning Anita Ekberg in the GIFs below!
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