ANITA EKBERG BREATHTAKING 1950s 2 1/4 COLOR CAMERA TRANSPARENCY PETER BASCH
Item History & Price
| Reference Number: Avaluer:12563830 |
PETER BASCH PHOTOGRAPHY PROVENANCE: The image offered in this listing comes directly from the personal archived library of PETER BASCH who was a celebrity and artistic nude Playboy photographer during the 1940s through the 1970s. Mr. Basch was a master in glamour and nude fine art photography having authored many books on the subject. In addition to photographer signed and/or stamped photographic images, we are only offering 100% guaranteed original camera images (B&W negatives and color tr...ansparencies) which have been stored away since he produced his first work. Many of the original camera film images (negatives and transparencies) have never been seen before and are one of a kind. Others have been published in the world's top celebrity and men's magazines. The rediscovery of the mastery of Peter Basch will reveal his respect and passion for photographing the world's top celebrities and most beautiful women such as BETTIE PAGE, JAYNE MANSFIELD, GRACE KELLY, SOPHIA LOREN, MARLON BRANDO, JANE FONDA, BRIGITTE BARDOT, ANITA EKBERG, FEDERICO FELLINI, URSULA ANDRESS, and many more. Please see a bio and additional notes on Peter Basch below.DESCRIPTION: Vintage 1950s original 2 1/4 color camera transparency of actress ANITA EKBERG in a breathtaking portrait taken by photographer PETER BASCH and from his personal archive.
This is the original transparency (color film) that was in the camera at the time of the photo shoot and is therefore the only one of its kind in existence.
RIGHTS: The PETER BASCH FAMILY TRUST is the sole and exclusive copyright owner of the listed image(s). No rights are included in this offering. - SIZE: 2 1/4"- TONE: color- CONDITION: Fine, with spotting. Ektachrome exhibits color shifting._______________________________________________________________ CONDITION GRADING Excellent: Very nearly pristine, with no more than trivial flaws. Very Fine: One or two minor defects and only the slightest handling wear. Fine: Minor flaws, with slight handling or surface flaws. Very Good: Slight scuffing, rippling, minor surface impressions. Good: Visibly used with small areas of wear, which may include surface impressions and spotting. Fair: Visibly damaged with extensive wear. SHIPPING TERMS - I ship all items using, what I call, triple protection packing. The photos are inserted into a display bag with a white board, then packed in between thick packaging boards and lastly wrapped with plastic film for weather protection before being placed into the shipping envelope. - The shipping cost for U.S. shipments includes USPS "Delivery Confirmation" tracking. - I am happy to combine multiple wins at no additional cost. Please wait for me to issue the invoice before making payment. PAYMENT TERMS - Please pay within three (3) days of purchase. - I reserve the right to re-list the item(s) if payment is not received within seven (7) days. - California residents - please wait for me to adjust the invoice to include California Sales Tax of 7.5% and 9% for Los Angeles residents. CUSTOMER SERVICE - I will respond to all inquiries within 24 hours. ________________________________________________________________ PETER BASCH (1921-2004) was a German/American glamour photographer who captured thousands of images of the most prominent stars of the 50s and 60s. Peter Basch was born in Berlin, Germany, the only child of Felix Basch and Grete Basch-Freund, both prominent theater and film personalities of the German-speaking world. In 1933 the family came to New York due to fears of rising anti-Jewish sentiment and laws in Germany. The family had US citizenship because Felix's father, Arthur Basch, was a wine trader who lived in San Francisco. After moving back to Germany, Arthur Basch kept his American citizenship, and passed it to his children and, thence, to his grandchildren. When the Basch family arrived in New York in 1933, they opened a restaurant on Central Park South in the Navarro Hotel. The restaurant, Gretel's Viennese, became a hangout for the Austrian expatriate community. Peter Basch had his first job there as a waiter. While in New York, Basch attended the De Witt Clinton High School. The family moved to Los Angeles to assist in Basch's father's career, during which time Basch went to school in England. Upon returning to the United States, Basch joined the Army. He was mobilized in the US Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit, where he worked as a script boy. After the war, he started attending UCLA and started taking photographs of young starlets working with other photographers and film studios. His mother asked him to join her back in New York after she and his father decided that Basch should be a photographer and they obtained a photography studio for their son. For over twenty years, Peter Basch had a successful career as a magazine photographer. He was known for his images of celebrities, artists, dancers, actors, starlets, and glamour-girls in America and Europe. His photos appeared in many major magazines such as Life, Look and Playboy.The Peter Basch Collection includes iconic images of all the major midcentury stars, from Europe and America. These masterful images are a window onto a time we cannot forget, when movie stars stepped out of the studio’s control, and we began to see these larger-than-life performers as full, three-dimensional personalities. Basch’s images capture the heart and spirit of these glamorous performers. Taking pictures in natural light, out in the world, we see these stars as full human beings, not the carefully made-up, studio-approved icons of oldfashioned Hollywood. Basch was able to capture the moments of a human being’s spirit, their mercurial reactions, all the facets that made these magnetic individuals the stars they were. Basch authored and co-authored a number of books containing his photographs including: Candid Photography (1958 with Peter Gowland Basch and Don Ornitz Basch) Peter Basch's Glamour Photography (A Fawcett How-To Book) (1958) Peter Basch photographs beauties of the world (1958) Camera in Rome (1963 with Nathan and Simon Basch) Peter Basch Photographs 100 Famous Beauties (1965) The nude as form & figure (1966) Put a Girl in Your Pocket: The Artful Camera of Peter Basch (1969) Peter Basch's Guide to Figure Photography (1975 with Jack Rey) Thoughts on Peter Basch by his daughter: "My Father, Peter Basch, saw. He looked and he saw. He taught me to see. He taught me to listen and hear. We used to play a game when I was little. He’d say, Michele, look at the street then look at me, what did you see? I would list the cars, red, black, navy; people, fat, tall, thin; children, parents; trees and plants. He would add the detail. A blue car with New York plates, a black car with New Jersey plates. The people were not just tall or small, thin or fat, they wore coats or sweaters, they laughed or were sad. The trees had leaves, were close together, the green was dark, vivid, the sun playing with the shadow. My Father saw. He captured in his mind and on film the unexpected moment in time, the interaction between two people, the look, the thought, the breath that punctuated the decision. My Father was one of the great romantics. He had a true love and appreciation of beauty in its purest form. We would talk about BEAUTY and her differences: natural, Hollywood, young, old and the beauty of communication, interaction, the Beauty of the moment. He recorded the breath in time on film: two ladies in Paris reading the paper, a Dachshund looking around the corner, a chair in front of the Eiffel Tower. My Father saw the thought and seized it for posterity. My Father understood the language light speaks to shadow. He showed me how the sun plays with dark. His favorite moment was at Sunrise when the shadows were long and soft. He saw every hue from white to black and everything in between. He understood the language, taught and published books on Light and Shadow, Form and Figure. I traveled through Europe with my Father. I was his assistant! And proud of it! I was the camera person! Changed the film, made sure the lens was clean, stood in during special poses, helped in the dark room, retouched to refine and perfect. I loved watching him talk and listen. He listened to Jane Fonda, Ursula Andress, Brigit Bardot, Fellini, Mastroiani and so many more. He listened and recorded the answer, the thought, that moment of indecision, realization and Seduction." Film Assignments: 8½ - Fellini Jules et Jim - Truffaut Bijoutiers du Clair de Lune - Vadim The Vice and the Virtue - Vadim Fearless Vampire Killers - Polanski Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - De Sica Une Femme Est Une Femme Goddard Fear - Rosselini Cartouche - De Broca Giant - Stevens Anne Frank - Stevens Guys and Dolls - Mankiewicz Horse Soldiers - Ford Majority of One - Leroy Walk on the Wild Side - Dmytryk Wild in the Streets - Spear Leonidas - Matte The Day the Fish Came Out - Cocayannis The Pawnbroker - Lumet La Verite - Clouzot La Loi Sacree - Pabst Baby Doll - Kazan Summertime - Lean The 13 Most Beautiful Girls - Warhol The Three Sisters - Bogart Francis of Assissi - Curtiz The Swimmer Perry Cape Fear The Man Who Had Power Over Women The Spy With The Cold Nose Winnetou Mata Hari Exhibitions: 2002 Jewish Museum - Vienna Austria “Vom Grossvater vertrieben” 2002 LEICA Gallery, NYC Portrait of Al Hirschfeld 2001 National Portrait Gallery -- London Dame Elizabeth (Taylor) 2001 Fahey-Klein Gallery, LA Group Show/Great Directors 2001 Museum/City of New York, Al Hirschfeld Exhibit 2000 Museum of Modern Art, NY, Brigitte Bardot 1999 Vienna, Austria – “übersee” 1999 Stadt Museum, Munich, Germany “TWEN” exhibit 1997 Museum of the Moving Image – Grace Kelly 1996 Staley Wise Gallery, NY “Shooting Stars” – one man show 1980s Museum of Modern Art, NY, Sophia Loren LA County Museum "Masters of Starlight" (subsequently traveled to Tokyo & Kyoto, Japan) Stadt Museum, Munich, Germany “AKT” (nudes) __________________________________________________________________ANITA EKBERG BIO Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (born 29 September 1931 in Malmö, Skåne) is a Swedish-American actress, model, and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita, which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.Ekberg was born on September 29, 1931, the eldest girl and the sixth of eight children. In her teens, she worked as a fashion model. In 1950, Ekberg entered the Miss Malmö competition at her mother's urging leading to the Miss Sweden contest, which she won. She consequently went to the United States to compete for the Miss Universe title despite not speaking English.Although she did not win Miss Universe, as one of six finalists she did earn a starlet's contract with Universal Studios, as was the rule at the time.[1] In America, Ekberg met Howard Hughes, who at the time was producing films and wanted her to change her nose, teeth and name (Hughes said "Ekberg" was too difficult to pronounce). She refused to change her name, saying that if she became famous people would learn to pronounce it, and if she did not become famous it would not matter.As a starlet at Universal, Ekberg received lessons in drama, elocution, dancing, horseriding and fencing. She appeared briefly in the 1953 Universal films, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and The Golden Blade. Ekberg skipped many of her drama lessons, restricting herself to horseriding in the Hollywood Hills. Ekberg later admitted that she was spoiled by the studio system and that she played instead of pursuing bigger film roles.The combination of a colourful private life and physique gave her appeal to gossip magazines such as Confidential and to the new type of men's magazine that proliferated in the 1950s. She soon became a major 1950s pin-up. In addition, Ekberg participated in publicity stunts. Famously, she admitted that an incident where her dress burst open in the lobby of London's Berkeley Hotel was pre-arranged with a photographer.[1]By the mid-1950s, after several modelling jobs, Ekberg finally broke into the film industry. She guest starred on Casablanca and Private Secretary. She had a small part in Blood Alley (1955) starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall. She appeared alongside the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy act in Artists and Models (1955) and Hollywood or Bust (1956) both for Paramount Pictures. For a while she was publicized as "Paramount's Marilyn Monroe".Paramount cast her in War and Peace which was shot in Rome in 1956, alongside Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn, before RKO gave the actress her first leading role in Back from Eternity. She'd go on to appear in Man in the Vault and Zarak (both 1956), both of which were minor productions that left a small impact on her career. In 1957, she starred in the British drama Interpol, with Victor Mature and Valerie with Sterling Hayden.In 1958, she appeared in two high-profile films: she co-starred with Bob Hope in Paris Holiday and starred with Philip Carey and Gypsy Rose Lee in Screaming Mimi. After starring in European release Sheba and the Gladiator in 1959, Ekberg's career began to decline.In 1960, Federico Fellini gave Ekberg her greatest role in La Dolce Vita, in which she played the unattainable "dream woman" opposite Marcello Mastroianni. The film has been released in the languages of English, French, German, and Italian. After this, she accepted a fairly good role in The Dam of the Yellow River in 1960.She then appeared in Boccaccio '70 (1962), a film that also featured Sophia Loren and Romy Schneider. Soon thereafter, Ekberg was being considered to play the first Bond girl, Honey Ryder, in Dr. No, but the role went to the then unknown, Ursula Andress. She would go on to co-star with Andress, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin in the western-comedy 4 for Texas in 1963. Fellini would call her back for two other films: I clowns (1972), and Intervista (1987), where she played herself in a reunion scene with Mastroianni.Ekberg was married to the British actor Anthony Steel from 1956 to 1959. From 1963 to 1975, she was married to the actor Rik Van Nutter. In an interview, she said she wished she had a child, stating the opposite on another occasion.Ekberg was romantically linked to Tyrone Power, Marcello Mastroianni, Errol Flynn, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra and Gary Cooper; she also had a three-year affair with Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli. In his autobiography Pieces of My Heart, actor Robert Wagner claims to have had an enjoyable one-night stand with Ekberg.Ekberg has not lived in Sweden since the early 1950s and rarely visits the country. She has welcomed Swedish journalists in her house outside Rome, and in 2005 appeared in the popular radio program Sommar, talking about her life. She stated in an interview that she will not move back to Sweden before she dies, when she will be buried there. Ekberg has said that the Swedish people and media have not appreciated her sufficiently; nevertheless, her personal and radio appearances have been popular in Sweden.On 19 July 2009, she had been admitted to the San Giovanni Hospital in Rome, after falling ill in her home in Genzano, according to a medical official in its neurosurgery department. She had been living in Italy for many years. Despite her condition not being considered serious, she has been put under observation in the facility.In December 2011, it was reported that the 80-year-old Ekberg was "destitute" following three months in a hospital with a broken thigh in Rimini, during which her home was robbed and badly damaged in a fire. Ekberg applied to help from the Fellini Foundation, itself in difficult financial straits. • Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)• The Golden Blade (1953)• Blood Alley (1955)• Artists and Models (1955)• War and Peace (1956)• Back from Eternity (1956)• Hollywood or Bust (1956)• Man in the Vault (1956)• Zarak (1956)• Interpol (1957)• Valerie (1957)• Paris Holiday (1958)• The Man Inside (1958)• Screaming Mimi (1958)• Sheba and the Gladiator (1959)• La Dolce Vita (1960)• The Dam of the Yellow River (1960)• Boccaccio '70 (1962)• Call Me Bwana (1963)• 4 for Texas (1963)• The Alphabet Murders (1965)• Way...Way Out (1966)• Fangs of the Living Dead (1969)• I clowns (1970) as herself• Killer Nun (also known as Suor Omicidi or Deadly Habits) (1978)Intervista (1987) as herself Courtesy of Wikipedia
This is the original transparency (color film) that was in the camera at the time of the photo shoot and is therefore the only one of its kind in existence.
RIGHTS: The PETER BASCH FAMILY TRUST is the sole and exclusive copyright owner of the listed image(s). No rights are included in this offering. - SIZE: 2 1/4"- TONE: color- CONDITION: Fine, with spotting. Ektachrome exhibits color shifting._______________________________________________________________ CONDITION GRADING Excellent: Very nearly pristine, with no more than trivial flaws. Very Fine: One or two minor defects and only the slightest handling wear. Fine: Minor flaws, with slight handling or surface flaws. Very Good: Slight scuffing, rippling, minor surface impressions. Good: Visibly used with small areas of wear, which may include surface impressions and spotting. Fair: Visibly damaged with extensive wear. SHIPPING TERMS - I ship all items using, what I call, triple protection packing. The photos are inserted into a display bag with a white board, then packed in between thick packaging boards and lastly wrapped with plastic film for weather protection before being placed into the shipping envelope. - The shipping cost for U.S. shipments includes USPS "Delivery Confirmation" tracking. - I am happy to combine multiple wins at no additional cost. Please wait for me to issue the invoice before making payment. PAYMENT TERMS - Please pay within three (3) days of purchase. - I reserve the right to re-list the item(s) if payment is not received within seven (7) days. - California residents - please wait for me to adjust the invoice to include California Sales Tax of 7.5% and 9% for Los Angeles residents. CUSTOMER SERVICE - I will respond to all inquiries within 24 hours. ________________________________________________________________ PETER BASCH (1921-2004) was a German/American glamour photographer who captured thousands of images of the most prominent stars of the 50s and 60s. Peter Basch was born in Berlin, Germany, the only child of Felix Basch and Grete Basch-Freund, both prominent theater and film personalities of the German-speaking world. In 1933 the family came to New York due to fears of rising anti-Jewish sentiment and laws in Germany. The family had US citizenship because Felix's father, Arthur Basch, was a wine trader who lived in San Francisco. After moving back to Germany, Arthur Basch kept his American citizenship, and passed it to his children and, thence, to his grandchildren. When the Basch family arrived in New York in 1933, they opened a restaurant on Central Park South in the Navarro Hotel. The restaurant, Gretel's Viennese, became a hangout for the Austrian expatriate community. Peter Basch had his first job there as a waiter. While in New York, Basch attended the De Witt Clinton High School. The family moved to Los Angeles to assist in Basch's father's career, during which time Basch went to school in England. Upon returning to the United States, Basch joined the Army. He was mobilized in the US Army Air Forces' First Motion Picture Unit, where he worked as a script boy. After the war, he started attending UCLA and started taking photographs of young starlets working with other photographers and film studios. His mother asked him to join her back in New York after she and his father decided that Basch should be a photographer and they obtained a photography studio for their son. For over twenty years, Peter Basch had a successful career as a magazine photographer. He was known for his images of celebrities, artists, dancers, actors, starlets, and glamour-girls in America and Europe. His photos appeared in many major magazines such as Life, Look and Playboy.The Peter Basch Collection includes iconic images of all the major midcentury stars, from Europe and America. These masterful images are a window onto a time we cannot forget, when movie stars stepped out of the studio’s control, and we began to see these larger-than-life performers as full, three-dimensional personalities. Basch’s images capture the heart and spirit of these glamorous performers. Taking pictures in natural light, out in the world, we see these stars as full human beings, not the carefully made-up, studio-approved icons of oldfashioned Hollywood. Basch was able to capture the moments of a human being’s spirit, their mercurial reactions, all the facets that made these magnetic individuals the stars they were. Basch authored and co-authored a number of books containing his photographs including: Candid Photography (1958 with Peter Gowland Basch and Don Ornitz Basch) Peter Basch's Glamour Photography (A Fawcett How-To Book) (1958) Peter Basch photographs beauties of the world (1958) Camera in Rome (1963 with Nathan and Simon Basch) Peter Basch Photographs 100 Famous Beauties (1965) The nude as form & figure (1966) Put a Girl in Your Pocket: The Artful Camera of Peter Basch (1969) Peter Basch's Guide to Figure Photography (1975 with Jack Rey) Thoughts on Peter Basch by his daughter: "My Father, Peter Basch, saw. He looked and he saw. He taught me to see. He taught me to listen and hear. We used to play a game when I was little. He’d say, Michele, look at the street then look at me, what did you see? I would list the cars, red, black, navy; people, fat, tall, thin; children, parents; trees and plants. He would add the detail. A blue car with New York plates, a black car with New Jersey plates. The people were not just tall or small, thin or fat, they wore coats or sweaters, they laughed or were sad. The trees had leaves, were close together, the green was dark, vivid, the sun playing with the shadow. My Father saw. He captured in his mind and on film the unexpected moment in time, the interaction between two people, the look, the thought, the breath that punctuated the decision. My Father was one of the great romantics. He had a true love and appreciation of beauty in its purest form. We would talk about BEAUTY and her differences: natural, Hollywood, young, old and the beauty of communication, interaction, the Beauty of the moment. He recorded the breath in time on film: two ladies in Paris reading the paper, a Dachshund looking around the corner, a chair in front of the Eiffel Tower. My Father saw the thought and seized it for posterity. My Father understood the language light speaks to shadow. He showed me how the sun plays with dark. His favorite moment was at Sunrise when the shadows were long and soft. He saw every hue from white to black and everything in between. He understood the language, taught and published books on Light and Shadow, Form and Figure. I traveled through Europe with my Father. I was his assistant! And proud of it! I was the camera person! Changed the film, made sure the lens was clean, stood in during special poses, helped in the dark room, retouched to refine and perfect. I loved watching him talk and listen. He listened to Jane Fonda, Ursula Andress, Brigit Bardot, Fellini, Mastroiani and so many more. He listened and recorded the answer, the thought, that moment of indecision, realization and Seduction." Film Assignments: 8½ - Fellini Jules et Jim - Truffaut Bijoutiers du Clair de Lune - Vadim The Vice and the Virtue - Vadim Fearless Vampire Killers - Polanski Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow - De Sica Une Femme Est Une Femme Goddard Fear - Rosselini Cartouche - De Broca Giant - Stevens Anne Frank - Stevens Guys and Dolls - Mankiewicz Horse Soldiers - Ford Majority of One - Leroy Walk on the Wild Side - Dmytryk Wild in the Streets - Spear Leonidas - Matte The Day the Fish Came Out - Cocayannis The Pawnbroker - Lumet La Verite - Clouzot La Loi Sacree - Pabst Baby Doll - Kazan Summertime - Lean The 13 Most Beautiful Girls - Warhol The Three Sisters - Bogart Francis of Assissi - Curtiz The Swimmer Perry Cape Fear The Man Who Had Power Over Women The Spy With The Cold Nose Winnetou Mata Hari Exhibitions: 2002 Jewish Museum - Vienna Austria “Vom Grossvater vertrieben” 2002 LEICA Gallery, NYC Portrait of Al Hirschfeld 2001 National Portrait Gallery -- London Dame Elizabeth (Taylor) 2001 Fahey-Klein Gallery, LA Group Show/Great Directors 2001 Museum/City of New York, Al Hirschfeld Exhibit 2000 Museum of Modern Art, NY, Brigitte Bardot 1999 Vienna, Austria – “übersee” 1999 Stadt Museum, Munich, Germany “TWEN” exhibit 1997 Museum of the Moving Image – Grace Kelly 1996 Staley Wise Gallery, NY “Shooting Stars” – one man show 1980s Museum of Modern Art, NY, Sophia Loren LA County Museum "Masters of Starlight" (subsequently traveled to Tokyo & Kyoto, Japan) Stadt Museum, Munich, Germany “AKT” (nudes) __________________________________________________________________ANITA EKBERG BIO Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg (born 29 September 1931 in Malmö, Skåne) is a Swedish-American actress, model, and cult sex symbol. She is best known for her role as Sylvia in the 1960 Federico Fellini film La Dolce Vita, which features the legendary scene of her cavorting in Trevi Fountain alongside Marcello Mastroianni.Ekberg was born on September 29, 1931, the eldest girl and the sixth of eight children. In her teens, she worked as a fashion model. In 1950, Ekberg entered the Miss Malmö competition at her mother's urging leading to the Miss Sweden contest, which she won. She consequently went to the United States to compete for the Miss Universe title despite not speaking English.Although she did not win Miss Universe, as one of six finalists she did earn a starlet's contract with Universal Studios, as was the rule at the time.[1] In America, Ekberg met Howard Hughes, who at the time was producing films and wanted her to change her nose, teeth and name (Hughes said "Ekberg" was too difficult to pronounce). She refused to change her name, saying that if she became famous people would learn to pronounce it, and if she did not become famous it would not matter.As a starlet at Universal, Ekberg received lessons in drama, elocution, dancing, horseriding and fencing. She appeared briefly in the 1953 Universal films, Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and The Golden Blade. Ekberg skipped many of her drama lessons, restricting herself to horseriding in the Hollywood Hills. Ekberg later admitted that she was spoiled by the studio system and that she played instead of pursuing bigger film roles.The combination of a colourful private life and physique gave her appeal to gossip magazines such as Confidential and to the new type of men's magazine that proliferated in the 1950s. She soon became a major 1950s pin-up. In addition, Ekberg participated in publicity stunts. Famously, she admitted that an incident where her dress burst open in the lobby of London's Berkeley Hotel was pre-arranged with a photographer.[1]By the mid-1950s, after several modelling jobs, Ekberg finally broke into the film industry. She guest starred on Casablanca and Private Secretary. She had a small part in Blood Alley (1955) starring John Wayne and Lauren Bacall. She appeared alongside the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy act in Artists and Models (1955) and Hollywood or Bust (1956) both for Paramount Pictures. For a while she was publicized as "Paramount's Marilyn Monroe".Paramount cast her in War and Peace which was shot in Rome in 1956, alongside Mel Ferrer and Audrey Hepburn, before RKO gave the actress her first leading role in Back from Eternity. She'd go on to appear in Man in the Vault and Zarak (both 1956), both of which were minor productions that left a small impact on her career. In 1957, she starred in the British drama Interpol, with Victor Mature and Valerie with Sterling Hayden.In 1958, she appeared in two high-profile films: she co-starred with Bob Hope in Paris Holiday and starred with Philip Carey and Gypsy Rose Lee in Screaming Mimi. After starring in European release Sheba and the Gladiator in 1959, Ekberg's career began to decline.In 1960, Federico Fellini gave Ekberg her greatest role in La Dolce Vita, in which she played the unattainable "dream woman" opposite Marcello Mastroianni. The film has been released in the languages of English, French, German, and Italian. After this, she accepted a fairly good role in The Dam of the Yellow River in 1960.She then appeared in Boccaccio '70 (1962), a film that also featured Sophia Loren and Romy Schneider. Soon thereafter, Ekberg was being considered to play the first Bond girl, Honey Ryder, in Dr. No, but the role went to the then unknown, Ursula Andress. She would go on to co-star with Andress, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin in the western-comedy 4 for Texas in 1963. Fellini would call her back for two other films: I clowns (1972), and Intervista (1987), where she played herself in a reunion scene with Mastroianni.Ekberg was married to the British actor Anthony Steel from 1956 to 1959. From 1963 to 1975, she was married to the actor Rik Van Nutter. In an interview, she said she wished she had a child, stating the opposite on another occasion.Ekberg was romantically linked to Tyrone Power, Marcello Mastroianni, Errol Flynn, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra and Gary Cooper; she also had a three-year affair with Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli. In his autobiography Pieces of My Heart, actor Robert Wagner claims to have had an enjoyable one-night stand with Ekberg.Ekberg has not lived in Sweden since the early 1950s and rarely visits the country. She has welcomed Swedish journalists in her house outside Rome, and in 2005 appeared in the popular radio program Sommar, talking about her life. She stated in an interview that she will not move back to Sweden before she dies, when she will be buried there. Ekberg has said that the Swedish people and media have not appreciated her sufficiently; nevertheless, her personal and radio appearances have been popular in Sweden.On 19 July 2009, she had been admitted to the San Giovanni Hospital in Rome, after falling ill in her home in Genzano, according to a medical official in its neurosurgery department. She had been living in Italy for many years. Despite her condition not being considered serious, she has been put under observation in the facility.In December 2011, it was reported that the 80-year-old Ekberg was "destitute" following three months in a hospital with a broken thigh in Rimini, during which her home was robbed and badly damaged in a fire. Ekberg applied to help from the Fellini Foundation, itself in difficult financial straits. • Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)• The Golden Blade (1953)• Blood Alley (1955)• Artists and Models (1955)• War and Peace (1956)• Back from Eternity (1956)• Hollywood or Bust (1956)• Man in the Vault (1956)• Zarak (1956)• Interpol (1957)• Valerie (1957)• Paris Holiday (1958)• The Man Inside (1958)• Screaming Mimi (1958)• Sheba and the Gladiator (1959)• La Dolce Vita (1960)• The Dam of the Yellow River (1960)• Boccaccio '70 (1962)• Call Me Bwana (1963)• 4 for Texas (1963)• The Alphabet Murders (1965)• Way...Way Out (1966)• Fangs of the Living Dead (1969)• I clowns (1970) as herself• Killer Nun (also known as Suor Omicidi or Deadly Habits) (1978)Intervista (1987) as herself Courtesy of Wikipedia
