Silvana Mangano

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A theatrical poster for 1949's Riso Amaro (Bitter Rice).

Silvana Mangano (April 21,^[1] 1930 – December 16, 1989) was an Italian actress.

Known for her appearance, at a young age she won a Miss Rome beauty pageant, which led her to cinema. The movie that brought her to stardom was Bitter Rice and she continued to have success in cinema without ever surpassing Sophia Loren or Gina Lollobrigida's level of stardom.

[edit] Biography

Born in Rome to an Italian father and an English mother, Mangano lived in poor times caused by the war. Trained for seven years as a dancer, she was supporting herself as a model.

Mangano as Circe in the 1955 film Ulysses.

In 1946, at age 16, Mangano won the Miss Rome beauty pageant and through this she obtained a rôle in a Mario Costa movie. One year later she became a contestant in the Miss Italia contest. Potential actress Lucia Bosé became "The Queen", among Mangano and several other future stars of Italian cinema such 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 some time for Mangano to ascend to international stardom with her stunning performance in Bitter Rice (Riso Amaro, Giuseppe De Santis, 1949). Thereafter, she signed a contract with Lux Films, in 1949, and later married Dino De Laurentiis, on the verge of becoming a known producer.^[1]

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.

Following surgery on December 4, 1989 that left her in a coma, Mangano died of lung cancer in Madrid, Spain during the late night/early morning hours between the 15th and the 16th of December 1989.^[1]