(MENAFN- Arab Times) MILAN Jan 11 (Agencies): Anita Ekberg the Swedish-born actress and sex-symbol of the 1950s and '60s who was immortalized bathing in the Trevi fountain in 'La Dolce Vita' has died. She was 83. Ekberg's lawyer Patrizia Ubaldi confirmed she died in Rome Sunday morning following a series of illnesses. She had been hospitalized most recently after Christmas. Ubaldi said that in her last days Ekberg was saddened by the illness and her advancing age.
'She had hoped to get better something that didn't happen' she said. Ekberg had long lived in Italy the country that gave her worldwide fame thanks to the iconic dip opposite Marcello Mastroianni. The scene where the blond bombshell clad in a black dress her arms wide open calls out 'Marcello' remains one of the most famous images in film history. Her curvaceous body and glamorous social life made her a favorite of tabloid press in the 1950s and 1960s. She married twice but never had children a fact she came to regret later in her life. Some gossip magazines called her 'The Iceberg' in a nod to her Scandinavian background. Famous But even as she became one of Sweden's most famous exports Ekberg maintained a problematic relation with her native country. She never starred in a Swedish film and was often at odds with Swedish journalists who criticized her for leaving the country and ridiculed her for adopting an American accent. Born on Sept. 29 1931 in the southern city of Malmo Ekberg grew up with seven siblings. In 1951 she won the Miss Sweden competition after being recommended to enter by organizers who saw her on the street and went to the United States to compete for the Miss Universe title. She didn't win but became a model in Hollywood and later started taking on small acting roles. Her role in Federico Fellini's 'La Dolce Vita' where she played a movie star shot her to stardom. The movie was a colossal success and came to define the wild and carefree days of the early 1960s. Hosting a Swedish radio program in 2005 Ekberg recalled shooting the scene in the Trevi Fountain in Rome. She said it was shot in February the water in the fountain was cold and Mastroianni was falling over in the fountain drunk on vodka. 'And there I was. I was freezing' she said. 'They had to lift me out of the water because I couldn't feel my legs anymore.' 'I have seen that scene a few times. Maybe too many times. I can't stand watching it anymore but it was beautiful at the time' she said. Ekberg remained in Italy for years appearing in scores of movies many forgettable. She returned in two Fellini movies: 'Clowns' and 'Intervista.' Ekberg married Briton Anthony Steel in 1956 but divorced him four years later. In 1963 she married again to actor Rik van Nutter but that marriage also failed. In an interview with Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet in 2006 Ekberg said her only regret in life was never having children. 'I would have liked to have a child preferably a son' she was quoted as saying. 'It didn't turn out that way. That's life you just have to accept it.' In the interview published in connection with Ekberg's 75th birthday she also said she wasn't afraid of death. 'I'm just angry because I won't get the chance to tell others about death where the soul goes and if there is a life afterward' she was quoted as saying. 'I don't know if paradise or hell exist but I'm sure hell is more groovy.' Ubaldi said a ceremony would be held in the coming days at a Lutheran church in Rome and that Ekberg had specified that her remains be cremated. The sixth of eight children she was born on September 29 1931 in the southern Swedish port of Malmo where her father worked as a docker. Both her mother and her friends had encouraged her to enter beauty contests and her success quickly took her to the United States with hopes of becoming Miss Universe. Although she did not win Ekberg was quickly noticed by among others the cult film director Russ Meyer the eccentric millionaire businessman and producer Howard Hughes and the actor-producer John Wayne. Also: LOS ANGELES: Rome Italian director Francesco Rosi known for socially engaged investigative dramas including 1972 Palme d'Or winner 'The Mattei Affair' and for his depiction of the complex roots of corruption in Italy died Saturday at his home in Rome. He was 92. The cause of death was complications from bronchitis according to Italian press reports. After starting out as an assistant to Luchino Visconti in the late 1940s Naples-born Rosi kicked off his directorial career at the 1958 Venice Film Festival where his first feature 'La sfida' ('The Challenge') which delved into the intricacies of the Neapolitan mob scooped the Special Jury prize. Rosi's 1962 Berlin Silver Bear winner 'Salvatore Giuliano' rigorously reconstructed the perverse criminal power play in postwar Sicily. His 'Hands Over the City' took on rapacious real-estate developers and their political cronies in Naples and scooped the 1963 Venice Golden Lion. Palme d'Or winner 'The Mattei Affair' is an investigation of the still-mysterious death of powerful Italian manager Enrico Mattei that digs deep into big oil capitalism and global economics. In a 2012 interview with Variety Rosi cited the influence of both neorealism and American directors Elia Kazan and John Huston on 'The Challenge' which is about a small-time Neapolitan hoodlum who challenges the crime syndicate over control of the local vegetable market. But he also noted that by his third feature 'Salvatore Giuliano' his aesthetic had evolved toward 'my own type of linguistic invention within critical realism' he said. Rosi's signature style in 'Giuliano' a meticulously documented investigation into the 1950 assassination of a legendary Sicilian bandit consists in hardly ever showing the protagonist. 'I always felt an urgency to make a type of cinema that would help understand the reality of things; the reality of politics of economics and also of criminal society which are all closely interconnected' Rosi said. 'These links are even worse today and even more worrying.' In 1979 Rosi won a BAFTA award for best foreign-language film for 'Christ Stopped at Eboli' about the exile of anti-fascist intellectual Carlo Levi. His 1981 'Three Brothers' which portrayed three estranged brothers who return to their southern village after their mother's death was nominated for a best foreign-language film Oscar that year. In 1984 he directed Placido Domingo in the Golden Globe-nominated adaptation of Georges Bizet's opera 'Carmen.' The last film Rosi directed was 1997's 'The Truce' based on Holocaust survivor Primo Levi's memoir and starring John Turturro. Rosi described 'The Truce' in a 2008 interview with Variety as being about 'the return to life.' 'Moments of joy of love of peace; even comic moments. It's about finding the pleasure of being back in the world' he said. The Berlin International Film Festival honored Rosi in 2008 with a career nod and a Golden Bear for lifetime achievement. In 2012 he was feted with a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement by the Venice Film Festival. On that occasion Venice topper Alberto Barbera praised Rosi for his 'absolute rigor in historic reconstruction never making any compromises on a political or ethical level combined with engaging storytelling and splendid visuals.' Rosi who is survived by his daughter actress Carolina Rosi will be honored Monday at a non-religious public service at Rome's Casa del Cinema.
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