Anita Ekberg

Anita Ekberg

Anita Ekberg was born on 29 September 1931, in Malmö, Skåne, Sweden. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita. Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964.

About Anita Ekberg in brief

Summary Anita EkbergAnita Ekberg was born on 29 September 1931, in Malmö, Skåne, Sweden. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita. Ekberg worked primarily in Italy, where she became a permanent resident in 1964. In her teens, Anita worked as a fashion model. She entered the Miss Sweden competition in 1950 at her mother’s urging. She went to the United States to compete for the 1951 Miss Universe title, despite speaking very little English. As a starlet at Universal, she received lessons in drama, elocution, dancing, horseback riding, and fencing. She appeared briefly in The Mississippi Gambler, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars , Take Me to Town, and The Golden Blade. Ekberg skipped many of her drama lessons, restricting herself to riding horses in the Hollywood Hills. The combination of Ekberg’s voluptuous physique and colorful private life appealed to the gossip magazines, like Confidential and she soon became a major 1950s pin-up, appearing in men’s magazines like Playboy.

She once admitted that an incident in which her dress burst open in the lobby of London’s Berkeley Hotel was prearranged with a photographer. She stayed in Italy to star in Sheba and Gladiator, playing the unattainable Zenobia in Rome. The film features a scene of her cavorting in Rome alongside Mastroianni’s Trevi, which has been called “one of cinema’s most iconic scenes” Ekberg later said she was spoiled by the studio system and played instead of pursuing bigger film roles. In 1956 Hedda Hopper said her fee was USD 75,000 per picture. She was announced for Glare directed by Budd Boetticher, but it was not made. She had the lead in an Italian-French co production, Last Train to Shanghai.