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| Birth Name(s) : Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg |
Date of Birth: September 29, 1931 |
| Status:
Single
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Partner:
N/A |
| Profession:
Actor |
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Full Anita Ekberg Biography
Growing up with seven brothers and sisters wasn't an adventure, but Anita's adventure began when she was elected Miss Sweden in 1950. She didn't win the Miss Universe contest but she got a modeling contract in the US. She quickly got a film contract with 'Howard Hughes' 's RKO that didn't lead anywhere (but Anita herself has said that Hughes wanted to marry her.)
Instead she started making movies with Universal, small roles that more often than not only required her to look beautiful. After five years in Hollywood she found herself in Rome, where Federico Fellini's Dolce vita, La (1960) meant her breakthrough. She stayed in Italy and made around 20 movies during the next ten years, some roles memorable, some to be forgotten. Her two marriages gave her a lot of attention from the press. During the 1970s the roles became less frequent, but she made a marvellous comeback with Fellini's Intervista (1987). |
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Additional Anita Ekberg Biography
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (born on September 29, 1931) is a Swedish model, actress and cult sex symbol.
Ekberg was born in 1931 in Malmö, Skåne, the oldest girl and the sixth of eight children. In her teens she worked as a fashion model. In 1950 Ekberg entered the Miss Malmö competition at her mother's urging, leading to the Miss Sweden contest, which she won. She consequently went to America to compete for Miss Universe in the United States despite not speaking English.
Although she did not win Miss Universe, as one of six finalists she did earn a starlet's contract with Universal Studios, as was the rule at the time. In America, Ekberg met Howard Hughes, who at the time was producing films and wanted her to change her nose, teeth, and name (Hughes said "Ekberg" was too difficult to pronounce). She refused to change her name, saying that if she became famous, people would learn to pronounce it, and if she didn't become famous, it would not matter.
As a starlet at Universal, Ekberg received lessons in drama, elocution, dancing, horse-riding and fencing. Ekberg skipped many of the lessons, restricting herself to horse riding in the Hollywood hills. Ekberg later admitted that she was spoiled by the studio system and played instead of pursuing bigger film roles.
While at Universal Ekberg caught the attention of legendary director and photographer Russ Meyer who went on record numerous times to say she was the most beautiful woman he ever photographed and that her 40D bustline was the most ample in A list Hollywood history, dwarfing rivals Jayne Mansfield and the British actress Sabrina.". Ekberg also delighted gossip columnists with her social life. She was linked to many famous men, and was given the nickname "The Iceberg" because of her mysterious demeanor
By the mid-50s, other studios offered Ekberg work. Paramount Studios and Frank Tashlin cast her in Hollywood or Bust (1956) and Artists and Models (1955) both starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Both films show off her stunning body but also use her as a foil for many of the director's clever sight gags. Ekberg also played an Amazonian extraterrestrial in 1953's Abbott and Costello Go to Mars.
Bob Hope joked that her parents had received the Nobel Prize for architecture as she was touring with him and William Holden to entertain U.S. troops in 1954. The tour led her to a contract with John Wayne's Batjac Productions. Wayne cast her in Blood Alley, a small role (1955), where Ekberg's features and appearance were Orientalized to play a Chinese woman, a role that earned her a Golden Globe award.
RKO gave Ekberg the female lead in Back From Eternity. Co-starring Robert Ryan and Rod Steiger. Anita was perfectly adequate in her cardboard role, and suggested that with a good director and a worthwhile part, she might have something to offer.
In 1956 Anita went to Rome to make War And Peace, directed by distinguished Hollywood veteran King Vidor and co-starring Audrey Hepburn.
Federico Fellini gave Ekberg her greatest role in La dolce vita (1960), in which she played the unattainable "dream woman" opposite Marcello Mastroianni; then Boccaccio '70 in 1960, a movie that also featured Sophia Loren. Fellini would call her back for two other films: I clowns (1972), and Intervista (1987), where she played herself in a reunion scene with Mastroianni.
La Dolce Vita was a sensational success, and Anita Ekberg's uninhibited cavorting in Rome's Trevi Fountain remains one of the most celebrated images in film history.
Ekberg was married to the British actor Anthony Steel from 1956 to 1959. From 1963 to 1975, she was married to the actor Rik Van Nutter; during their marriage, she had several miscarriages, but no successful pregnancies. In an interview she said she wished she had a child , although on another occasion she said she never wanted a child.
Ekberg was romantically linked to Tyrone Power, Marcello Mastroianni, Errol Flynn, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, and Gary Cooper; she also had a three-year affair with the late Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli. |
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Anita Ekberg Quote(s)
| I'm very much bigger than I was, so what? It's not really fatness, it's development. |
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