Silvana Mangano

Silvana Mangano died of lung cancer in Madrid, Spain, at 59 years of age. She was called "Mother of the Nation". Married to Bitter Rice producer Dino De Laurentiis, Mangano had four children, one of whom, daughter Raffaela, coproduced with his father the Mangano's next-to-last film Dune (David Lynch, 1984). She played Käthe Scholz in Die Unverbesserlichen and Ada Harris. Though she never scaled the heights of her contemporaries Sophia Loren and 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). She was one of the most popular German TV actresses. This led her to a movie contract, though it would take sometime for Mangano to ascend to international stardom with her stunning performance in Bitter Rice (Riso Amaro, Giuseppe De Santis, 1949). Inge Meysel (May 30, 1910 - July 10, 2004) was a German actress.

Mangano's earliest connection with filmmaking occurred through her romantic relationship with actor Marcello Mastroianni. One year later she was one of the girls in the Miss Italia contest. Potential actress Lucia Bose became "The Queen", among Mangano and some other future stars of Italian cinema like as Gina Lollobrigida, Eleonora Rossi Drago and Gianna Maria Canale. In 1946, at 16, Mangano won the Miss Rome beauty pageant. She was born in Rome, Italy. Trained as a dancer, she was supporting herself as a model.

Silvana Mangano (April 21, 1930 - December 16, 1989) was the most sexy actress of Italy's neo-realistic period.