Silvana Mangano
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A theatrical poster for 1949's Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice). |
Silvana Mangano (
April 23,
1930 –
December 16,
1989) was an Italian actress.
She was born in
Rome, Italy. Trained as a dancer, she was supporting herself as a model.
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Silvana as Circe in the 1955 film Ulysses. |
In 1946, at 16, Mangano won the Miss Rome beauty pageant. One year later she was one of the girls in the Miss Italia contest. Potential actress
Lucia Bose became "The Queen", among Mangano and some other future stars of Italian cinema like as
Gina Lollobrigida,
Eleonora Rossi Drago and
Gianna Maria Canale.
Mangano's earliest connection with filmmaking occurred through her romantic relationship with actor
Marcello Mastroianni. This led her to a movie contract, though it would take sometime for Mangano to ascend to international stardom with her stunning performance in
Bitter Rice (
Riso Amaro,
Giuseppe De Santis, 1949).
Though she never scaled the heights of her contemporaries
Sophia Loren and
Gina Lollobrigida, Mangano remained a favorite star between the 1950s and 1970s, appearing in
Anna (
Alberto Lattuada, 1951),
The Gold of Naples (
L' Oro di Napoli,
Vittorio De Sica, 1954),
Mambo (
Robert Rossen, 1955),
Theorem (
Teorema,
Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968), and
Death in Venice (
Morte a Venezia,
Luchino Visconti, 1971).
Married to
Bitter Rice producer
Dino De Laurentiis, Mangano had four children, one of whom, daughter
Raffaella, coproduced with her father on Mangano's next-to-last film,
Dune (
David Lynch, 1984). Her granddaughter is
Giada De Laurentiis, hostess of
Everyday Italian on the
Food Network.
Silvana Mangano died of lung cancer in
Madrid, Spain, at 59 years of age.
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Classic Movies (1939 - 1969): Silvana Mangano*
Silvana Mangano page at Batnet
