What was Gina Lollobrigida's Net Worth?
Gina Lollobrigida was an Italian actress, photojournalist, and sculptor who had a net worth of $12 million at the time of her death. Though, as we detail in the next section of this article, Gina's estate has been embroiled in a series of complications and allegations of embezzlement and improper wealth disappearance. She also donated tens of millions of dollars to charity in her later years, including a single $5 million donation in 2013 to support stem-cell research. Gina Lollobrigida died on January 16, 2023 at the age of 95. Gina rose to fame in the 50s and 60s as an international sex symbol and movie star. Her credits include "Times Gone By," "Beauties of the Night," "Beat the Devil," "The World's Most Beautiful Woman," "Pleasant Nights," and "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell." As her film career slowed down, Lollobrigida established a career as a photojournalist.
Estate Value and Dispute
According to legal filings in the weeks after her death, Gina Lollobrigida's estate controlled roughly $12 million in assets. It's unclear if that amount was her liquid assets alone or if it included the value of a villa in southeast Italy and apartments in Monte Carlo and Rome. Her estate at one point owned a valuable collection of paintings and jewelry.
In her will, Gina left her estate to her 66-year-old only son Milko Skofic Jr. and her 35-year-old secretary/companion Andrea Piazzolla who first began working for the icon at the age of 24 as a driver.
April 2023, several months after her passing, it was revealed that a bitter dispute had erupted between Milko and Andrea, with her son accusing the one-time assistant of manipulating Gina to include him in a share of the estate. Around the time of her death, Andrea had already been accused of embezzling 3 million Euros from Gina between 2013 and 2018.
Complicating the matters significantly, it was also revealed that 9 million Euros (the vast majority of her estate) had gone missing, leaving assets worth just 500,000 Euros.
In November 2023 Andrea Piazzolla was convicted of defrauding and embezzling $12 million worth of property, cash, cars and jewelry from Gina between 2013 and 2018. As we stated previously, that $12 million represented the vast majority of Gina's net worth at the time of her death. He reportedly used a portion of the funds to buy several sports cars, including a Ferrari and a Jaguar, and two apartments in Rome for roughly $4 million USD.
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Gina Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, Italy. She is one of four sisters, with her siblings being Giuliana, Maria, and Fernanda. As a youth, Lollobrigida modeled and participated in a number of beauty contests. She then began appearing in small roles in Italian films during her early adulthood; among her credits were "Lucia di Lammermoor," "This Wine of Love," "Black Eagle," and "When Love Calls."
Film Career in the 40s and 50s
In 1947, Lollobrigida had one of her first leading roles in Mario Costa's big-screen adaptation of the opera "Pagliacci." The same year, she appeared in the Italian film "Flesh Will Surrender" and the British film "A Man About the House." She followed this with starring roles in a string of Italian films, including "Mad About Opera," "Alarm Bells," "The Bride Can't Wait," "The White Line," and "Miss Italy."
In 1950, Lollobrigida signed a preliminary seven-year contract with Howard Hughes to make three movies a year; however, after she refused the final terms of the contract, a protracted dispute prevented her from working in the United States until 1959. Despite this, Lollobrigida had a hugely prolific and successful career in the 50s. Her credits early in the decade included "A Tale of Five Cities," "The Young Caruso," "Four Ways Out," "Attention! Bandits!," "Times Gone By," "Beauties of the Night," and "The Wayward Wife." In 1953, Lollobrigida gave one of her most acclaimed performances in the romantic comedy "Bread, Love and Dreams," earning a BAFTA nomination. That same year, she appeared in her first widely seen English-language film, John Huston's "Beat the Devil," in which she played the wife of Humphrey Bogart's character. Lollobrigida's other notable credits in the 50s include "Crossed Swords," costarring Errol Flynn; "The World's Most Beautiful Woman," for which she earned her first David di Donatello Award for Best Actress; Carol Reed's "Trapeze," costarring Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis; "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," in which she played Esmeralda; Vittorio De Sica's "Anna of Brookyln"; John Sturges' "Never So Few"; and King Vidor's "Solomon and Sheba," in which she portrayed the Queen of Sheba.
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Film Career in the 60s and Beyond
Lollobrigida kicked off the 60s with leading roles in "Go Naked in the World" and "Come September." For her performance in the latter film, which costarred Rock Hudson, Sandra Dee, and Bobby Darin, Lollobrigida won a Golden Globe Award. She continued her success in 1962 with "Imperial Venus," for which she won her second David di Donatello Award. Following this, Lollobrigida was in "Mad Sea"; the crime thriller "Woman of Straw," with Sean Connery; the comedies "Me, Me, Me… and the Others," "Strange Bedfellows," and "Pleasant Nights"; the drama "The Sultans"; the play adaptation "Hotel Paradiso," costarring Alec Guinness; the biographical drama "Cervantes"; the giallo film "Death Laid an Egg"; and the Bob Hope war film "The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell." Lollobrigida then had one of her most renowned roles in 1968, starring alongside Shelley Winters, Phil Silvers, and Telly Savalas in the comedy "Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell." For her performance, she won her third David di Donatello Award and received a Golden Globe nomination.
Lollobrigida's acting career slowed considerably by the 70s. Her only notable credits during the decade were the spaghetti Western comedy "Bad Man's River" and the West German comedy "King, Queen, Knave," costarring David Niven. In the 80s, Lollobrigida appeared only in the documentary "Wandering Stars," and in the 90s appeared in Agnès Varda's "One Hundred and One Nights" and Ariel Zeitoun's "XXL."
Television Career
Although primarily a movie star, Lollobrigida appeared on a handful of television programs. In 1972, she played the Fairy with Turquoise Hair in the Italian miniseries "The Adventures of Pinocchio." Later, in 1984, she played the recurring role of Francesca Gioberti on the primetime soap opera "Falcon Crest"; for her work, she received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Lollobrigida's other television credits include the miniseries "Deceptions" and the romantic dramedy series "The Love Boat."
(Photo by Daniele Venturelli/Getty Images)
Photojournalism
As her acting career was waning in the 70s, Lollobrigida took up a second career as a photojournalist. Among her famous subjects were Henry Kissinger, Paul Newman, Ella Fitzgerald, Audrey Hepburn, and Salvador Dalí. Additionally, she was able to gain access to Cuban leader Fidel Castro for an exclusive interview.
Personal Life and Philanthropy
In 1949, Lollobrigida wed Slovenian physician Milko Škofič, with whom she had a child named Andrea. The family moved from Italy to Toronto, Canada in 1960. Lollobrigida later divorced Škofič in 1971. She subsequently began dating Spanish businessman Javier Rigau y Rafols, who was 34 years her junior. The two got engaged in 2006, but called it off a few months later.
In her final decades Lollobrigida divided her time between a home in Rome and a villa in Monte Carlo.
On the philanthropic side of things, Lollobrigida donated around $5 million to stem-cell therapy research in 2013; the money came from the sale of her jewelry collection at Sotheby's.
