Silvana Mangano

Silvana Mangano, born in 1930 and passing in 1989, was a pivotal Italian actress who rose from the post-war neorealist movement to become a celebrated sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s. Her career, marked by performances in films like "Bitter Rice" and "The Verona Trial," earned her three David di Donatello Awards and two Nastro d'Argento recognitions. After a childhood in wartime poverty and a brief stint as a dancer and model, Mangano won the Miss Rome pageant in 1946, propelling her into cinema. She worked with directors such as Visconti, Pasolini, and De Sica, and continued acting into her fifties, appearing in films by David Lynch and Nikita Mikhalkov. Married to producer Dino De Laurentiis, she was the mother of Veronica and Raffaella De Laurentiis.