Anita Ekberg, ‘La Dolce Vita’ actress, dies at 83
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ANITA Ekberg, the Swedish-born actress and sex-symbol of the 1950s and ‘60s who was immortalized bathing in the Trevi fountain in “La Dolce Vita,” has died. She was 83.
Ekberg’s lawyer Patrizia Ubaldi confirmed she died in Rome yesterday morning following a series of illnesses. She had been hospitalized most recently after Christmas.
Ubaldi said that in her last days Ekberg was saddened by the illness and her advancing age. “She had hoped to get better, something that didn’t happen,” she said.
Ekberg had long lived in Italy, the country that gave her worldwide fame thanks to the iconic dip opposite Marcello Mastroianni. The scene where the blond bombshell, clad in a black dress, her arms wide open, calls out “Marcello” remains one of the most famous images in film history.
In 2005, Ekberg recalled shooting the fountain scene in February. The water was cold and Mastroianni was falling over in the fountain drunk on vodka.
“And there I was. I was freezing,” she said. “They had to lift me out of the water because I couldn’t feel my legs anymore.
“I have seen that scene a few times. Maybe too many times. I can’t stand watching it anymore, but it was beautiful at the time,” she said of the scene that made her famous. Her curvaceous body and glamorous social life made her a favorite of tabloid press in the 1950s and 1960s.
She married twice but never had children — a fact she came to regret later in her life. Some gossip magazines called her “The Iceberg” in a nod to her Scandinavian background. But even as she became one of Sweden’s most famous exports, Ekberg maintained a problematic relation with her native country. She never starred in a Swedish film and was often at odds with Swedish journalists, who criticized her for leaving the country and ridiculed her for adopting an American accent.
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