Anita Ekberg (Actor)

Anita Ekberg in a scene from the MGM film The Alphabet Murders. (Photo: Chris War / Keystone Features / Getty Images)

Curvaceous and statuesque, Anita Ekberg utilized her natural attributes to win the Miss Sweden contest in 1951. She traveled to the USA to compete in the Miss Universe pageant and remained in America where she first found work as a model. Hollywood eventually beckoned but the studios and filmmakers cast the voluptuous, husky-voiced blonde more for her looks than for her talent in such forgettable films as "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars" (1953) and "Zarak" (1956). Her one real shot at playing a three-dimensional character was in King Vidor's "War and Peace" (1956) but significant follow-up roles were not forthcoming in Tinseltown. Ekberg lent her talents to several Bob Hope TV specials, toured with the comic entertaining US troops abroad and even made two minor comedies with Hope: "Paris Holiday" (1958) and "Call Me Bwana" (1962).

In danger of sinking into a mire of gladiator epics and cheap comedies, Ekberg was rescued by Federico Fellini who cast her in her most memorable role--an archetypal movie star--in "La Dolce Vita" (1960). The scene of her character dancing in Fountain of Trevi remains as one of the most memorable screen images ever captured. The director offered her a second good role in his segment ("La Tentazioni del Dottor Antonio/The Temptation of Doctor Antonio") of "Boccaccio '70" (1962), in which Ekberg's sensual persona was fully exploited. For much of the next two decades, though, she was once again trapped in substandard genre fare and lame comedies. Twenty-seven years after "La Dolce Vita", Ekberg appeared in the Fellini's career reflection, "Intervista" (1987), watching film clips of herself during her heyday of the 1950s and 60s. Most critics, while praising the movie, tended to dwell on the changes in her looks, as if she would somehow be magically preserved. (The fiery actress bristles in press interviews about Fellini's use of her and Mastroianni in that film, especially in relation to her fee, as well as over the notion the director "discovered" her.) While she has remained active in films into the 90s, the roles were hardly memorable. An exception came with her portrayal of an aging opera singer who succumbs to the charms of the titular "Le Nain rouge/The Red Dwarf" (1998). Still blonde, but a bit heavier, Ekberg was able to project the requisite sensuality and diva-like behavior resulting in a full-bodied performance that ranked among her best.