Mangano, Silvana (1930–1989)

Italian film actress . Born on April 21, 1930, in Rome, Italy; died in 1989; one of four children of a Sicilian railroad worker and an Englishwoman; married Dino De Laurentiis (a film producer), in 1949 (separated 1983); children: one son Frederico De Laurentiis, a film producer (died 1981), and three daughters, one of whom, Raffaella De Laurentiis, is also a film producer.

Selected films:

Elisir d'Amore (This Wine of Love, 1946); Il Delitto di Giovanni Episcopo (Flesh Will Surrender, 1947); Gli Uomini sono Nemici (1948); Black Magic (Cagliostro, 1949); Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice, 1949); Il Lupo della Sila (Lure of the Sila, 1949); Il Brigante Musolino (1950); Anna (1951); Mambo (1954); L'Oro di Napoli (Gold of Naples, 1954); Ulisse (Ulysses, 1954); Uomini e Lupi (1956); La Diga sul Pacifico (This Angry Age also known as The Sea Wall, 1958); La Tempesta (Tempest, 1958); La Grande Guerra (The Great War, 1959); Jovanka e l'Altri (Five Branded Women, 1960); Crimen (… And Suddenly It's Murder, 1960); Il Guidizio Universale (1961); Barabba (Barabbas, 1961); Una Vita difficile (A Difficult Life, 1961); Il Processo di Verona (1962); La Mia Signora (1964); Il Disco Volante (1965); lo lo lo … e gli altri (1966); Scusi lei e' favorevole o contrario? (1967); Le Streghe (The Witches, 1967); Edipo Re (Oedipus Rex, 1967); Capriccio al'Italiana (1968); Teorema (1968); Scipione detto anche l'Africano (1971); Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice, 1971); Il Decameron (The Decameron, 1971); Lo Scopone scientifico (The Scientific Cardplayer, 1972); D'Amore si muore (1972); Ludwig (Ludwig II, 1972); Gruppo di Famiglia in un interno (Conversation Piece, 1975); Dune (U.S., 1984); Oci Ciornie (1987).

Born in Rome in 1930 of Sicilian-English parentage, Silvana Mangano was trained as a dancer and entered films as a teenager after winning the title of Miss Rome. Her postwar roles were unremarkable, but she rocketed to fame in 1949, as the voluptuous lead in Giuseppe De Santis' socio-erotic film Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice), about the exploitation of women hired to work in the rice fields during the short growing season. (The color poster advertising this film about exploitation pictured the actress in a skimpy red top, hands on her hips, and eyes closed seductively.) Shortly after the film came out, Mangano married its producer Dino De Laurentiis and continued to play leading roles in films, although she was soon overshadowed by newcomers Gina Lollobrigida and Sophia Loren . Mangano retired from films for a few years following the death of her son Frederico in a plane crash in 1981, and was separated from

De Laurentiis two years later. She died from a heart attack following surgery for lung cancer in 1989. One of her three daughters, Raffaella De Laurentiis , is also a film producer.