Sylva Koscina
Encyclopedia
Sylva Koscina was an Italian
actress.
as Sylva Koskinon of a Greek father and a Polish mother, she may be best-remembered for her role as Iole, the bride of Hercules (Steve Reeves
) in Hercules
(1958) and Hercules Unchained (1960). She also played Paul Newman
's romantic interest in The Secret War of Harry Frigg
(1968).
During the Second World War when she was a teenager, she moved to Italy to live with her sister, who had married an Italian citizen.
Koscina had an extensive film career there. She also starred in the 1967 comedy caper Three Bites of the Apple with David McCallum
, and Deadlier Than the Male
(1967), in which she and Elke Sommer
portrayed sophisticated professional killers dueling with Bulldog Drummond
. She also played Danica in the Yugoslavian movie The Battle of Neretva
, in 1969. She played a German doctor, Bianca, in Hornets' Nest
with Rock Hudson
.
Koscina had studied physics at the University of Naples, was Miss Di Tappa at the Tour of Italy bicycle race in 1954, as well as being a fashion model. She made a fleeting appearance in the part of an aspiring actress in Siamo uomini o caporali? [Are we men or corporals?] (1955) before making a flying catch at her great opportunity: she portrayed Giulia, daughter of the train engineer Andrea, in Pietro Germi's Il ferroviere [The Railroad Man] (1956). Koscina immediately confirmed her talent in Guendalina
(1957), where she had no difficulty playing the part of a young mother.
A lead player in popular comedies, such as Nonna Sabella [Grandmother Sabella] (1957), Ladro lui, ladra lei
[He a thief, she a thief] (1958), and Poveri millionari [Poor millionaires] (1958), Koscina alternated cleverly between roles as vamp and ingenue. She represented women in search of social upward mobility, the image of an Italy that had left its worst problems behind.
Koscina was suited to sophisticated comedies like Mogli pericolose [Dangerous wives] (1958), where she made a direct sentimental challenge to poor Giorgia Moll
. But she also seemed at ease draped in a peplum: she made a marvelous fiancee for Hercules in Le fatiche di Ercole [Hercules] (1958), a prototype of this kind of film. A true-life example of her popularity in Italy occurred when, in order to win her over, a police officer let her go without issuing a traffic ticket. Sylva was later a guest on a television program, where thanked him on the air, thus getting him into lots of trouble with the police department. The incident and its aftermath inspired the movie Il vigile
[The policeman] (1960), where she played herself.
In the first half of the sixties, Koscina married her lover, Raimondo Castelli, a small producer connected with Minerva Films. She managed to keep well afloat with roles in Damiano Damiani's Il sicario [The hired killer] (1961). In La lepre e la tartaruga [The Tortoise and the Hare], an episode in Le quattro verita [The Three Fables of Love] (1963), the director Blasetti constructed a duel between Koscina and Monica Vitti
. In 1965, Koscina appeared in Giulietta degli spiriti. She was also a television personality, as she was often the special guest on variety shows.
From the early 1960s, she invested most of her considerable salaries as a star in a luxurious villa, in the well-to-do district of Marino, Rome, complete with 16th-century furniture and artistic paintings. That lasted until her spending overcame her dwindling income, and she had to face a tax evasion inquest, when she was forced to sell her house in 1976. Living with Raimondo Castelli since 1960, she did not marry due to then Italian law and because his wife Marinella refused him an annulment. Castelli and Koscina married in Mexico in 1967, but that marriage was not recognized in Italy.
After passing thirty, she partnered with actors such as Kirk Douglas
in A Lovely Way to Die
(1968) and Paul Newman
in The Secret War of Harry Frigg
(1967), but without any luck. Her fame being a bit tarnished, it was given a boost in the second half of the sixties when she was photographed bare-breasted in the Italian edition of Playboy
magazine.
Mauro Bolognini
's L'assolute naturale (1969) was released complete with a "chaste" full nude shot.
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
actress.
Biography
Born in ZagrebZagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
as Sylva Koskinon of a Greek father and a Polish mother, she may be best-remembered for her role as Iole, the bride of Hercules (Steve Reeves
Steve Reeves
Stephen L. Reeves was an American bodybuilder and actor. At the peak of his career, he was the highest-paid actor in Europe.-Childhood:...
) in Hercules
Hercules (1958 film)
Hercules is a 1958 Italian epic fantasy feature film based upon the Hercules myths and the Quest for the Golden Fleece. The film stars Steve Reeves as the titular hero and Sylva Koscina as his love interest Princess Iole. Hercules was directed by Pietro Francisci and produced by Federico Teti...
(1958) and Hercules Unchained (1960). She also played Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
's romantic interest in The Secret War of Harry Frigg
The Secret War of Harry Frigg
The Secret War of Harry Frigg is a 1968 comedy film set in World War II. It was directed by Jack Smight and starred Paul Newman.-Plot:Several brigadier generals are unexpectedly taken prisoner by the Italians while in the sauna - which is a public relations disaster. The generals are held in an...
(1968).
During the Second World War when she was a teenager, she moved to Italy to live with her sister, who had married an Italian citizen.
Koscina had an extensive film career there. She also starred in the 1967 comedy caper Three Bites of the Apple with David McCallum
David McCallum
David Keith McCallum, Jr. is a Scottish actor and musician. He is best known for his roles as Illya Kuryakin, a Russian-born secret agent, in the 1960s television series The Man from U.N.C.L.E., as interdimensional operative Steel in Sapphire & Steel, and Dr...
, and Deadlier Than the Male
Deadlier Than the Male
Deadlier Than the Male is a 1967 British action film featuring the character of Bulldog Drummond. It is one of the many take-offs of James Bond produced during the 1960s but based on an established detective fiction hero...
(1967), in which she and Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer
Elke Sommer , born Baroness Elke Schletz, is a German actress, entertainer and artist.-Career:Sommer was born in Berlin to a Lutheran minister and his wife...
portrayed sophisticated professional killers dueling with Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond is a British fictional character, created by "Sapper", a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile , and the hero of a series of novels published from 1920 to 1954.- Drummond :...
. She also played Danica in the Yugoslavian movie The Battle of Neretva
The Battle of Neretva
Battle of Neretva is a 1969 Yugoslavian partisan film. The film was written by Stevan Bulajić and Veljko Bulajić, and directed by Veljko Bulajić. It is based on the true events of World War II. The Battle of the Neretva was due to a strategic plan for a combined Axis powers attack in 1943 against...
, in 1969. She played a German doctor, Bianca, in Hornets' Nest
Hornets' Nest
-Plot:In Northern Italy in 1944, the entire population of the village of Reanoto is massacred by the SS for helping the Italian resistance movement. The only survivors are a group of young boys in ages from 7 to 14 led by Aldo who witness the mass execution and vow revenge.That night, a stick of...
with Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer, Jr., later Roy Harold Fitzgerald , known professionally as Rock Hudson, was an American film and television actor, recognized as a romantic leading man during the 1950s and 1960s, most notably in several romantic comedies with Doris Day.Hudson was voted "Star of the Year",...
.
Koscina had studied physics at the University of Naples, was Miss Di Tappa at the Tour of Italy bicycle race in 1954, as well as being a fashion model. She made a fleeting appearance in the part of an aspiring actress in Siamo uomini o caporali? [Are we men or corporals?] (1955) before making a flying catch at her great opportunity: she portrayed Giulia, daughter of the train engineer Andrea, in Pietro Germi's Il ferroviere [The Railroad Man] (1956). Koscina immediately confirmed her talent in Guendalina
Guendalina
Guendalina is a 1957 Italian comedy film directed by Alberto Lattuada. It was entered into the 1957 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Jacqueline Sassard - Guendalina* Raffaele Mattioli - Oberdan* Sylva Koscina - Francesca, Guendalina's mother...
(1957), where she had no difficulty playing the part of a young mother.
A lead player in popular comedies, such as Nonna Sabella [Grandmother Sabella] (1957), Ladro lui, ladra lei
Ladro lui, ladra lei
Ladro lui, ladra lei is a 1958 Italian comedy film directed by Luigi Zampa and starring Alberto Sordi.-Cast:* Alberto Sordi - Cencio* Sylva Koscina - Cesira* Alberto Bonucci - Shopkeeper* Mario Carotenuto - Shopkeeper...
[He a thief, she a thief] (1958), and Poveri millionari [Poor millionaires] (1958), Koscina alternated cleverly between roles as vamp and ingenue. She represented women in search of social upward mobility, the image of an Italy that had left its worst problems behind.
Koscina was suited to sophisticated comedies like Mogli pericolose [Dangerous wives] (1958), where she made a direct sentimental challenge to poor Giorgia Moll
Giorgia Moll
Giorgia Moll, born in Rome, Province of Pordenone, is an Italian actress.-Selected filmography:* 1956 : Mio figlio Nerone by Steno : Lidia* 1956 : Club de femmes by Ralph Habib : Gina...
. But she also seemed at ease draped in a peplum: she made a marvelous fiancee for Hercules in Le fatiche di Ercole [Hercules] (1958), a prototype of this kind of film. A true-life example of her popularity in Italy occurred when, in order to win her over, a police officer let her go without issuing a traffic ticket. Sylva was later a guest on a television program, where thanked him on the air, thus getting him into lots of trouble with the police department. The incident and its aftermath inspired the movie Il vigile
Il Vigile
The Traffic Policeman is a 1960 Italian comedy film directed by Luigi Zampa.-Plot:An unemployed man gets a job as traffic policeman, but the traffic in the big city creates innumerable problems for him...
[The policeman] (1960), where she played herself.
In the first half of the sixties, Koscina married her lover, Raimondo Castelli, a small producer connected with Minerva Films. She managed to keep well afloat with roles in Damiano Damiani's Il sicario [The hired killer] (1961). In La lepre e la tartaruga [The Tortoise and the Hare], an episode in Le quattro verita [The Three Fables of Love] (1963), the director Blasetti constructed a duel between Koscina and Monica Vitti
Monica Vitti
Monica Vitti is an Italian actress best known for her starring roles in films directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, her lover at that time, during the early 1960s...
. In 1965, Koscina appeared in Giulietta degli spiriti. She was also a television personality, as she was often the special guest on variety shows.
From the early 1960s, she invested most of her considerable salaries as a star in a luxurious villa, in the well-to-do district of Marino, Rome, complete with 16th-century furniture and artistic paintings. That lasted until her spending overcame her dwindling income, and she had to face a tax evasion inquest, when she was forced to sell her house in 1976. Living with Raimondo Castelli since 1960, she did not marry due to then Italian law and because his wife Marinella refused him an annulment. Castelli and Koscina married in Mexico in 1967, but that marriage was not recognized in Italy.
After passing thirty, she partnered with actors such as Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas
Kirk Douglas is an American stage and film actor, film producer and author. His popular films include Out of the Past , Champion , Ace in the Hole , The Bad and the Beautiful , Lust for Life , Paths of Glory , Gunfight at the O.K...
in A Lovely Way to Die
A Lovely Way to Die
A Lovely Way to Die is a 1968 American drama film directed by David Lowell Rich and starring Kirk Douglas, Sylva Koscina Eli Wallach and Kenneth Haigh. A police officer resigns from the force, and takes up a role as a bodyguard to the wife of a wealthy man...
(1968) and Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
in The Secret War of Harry Frigg
The Secret War of Harry Frigg
The Secret War of Harry Frigg is a 1968 comedy film set in World War II. It was directed by Jack Smight and starred Paul Newman.-Plot:Several brigadier generals are unexpectedly taken prisoner by the Italians while in the sauna - which is a public relations disaster. The generals are held in an...
(1967), but without any luck. Her fame being a bit tarnished, it was given a boost in the second half of the sixties when she was photographed bare-breasted in the Italian edition of Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
magazine.
Mauro Bolognini
Mauro Bolognini
Mauro Bolognini was an Italian film director of literate sensibility, known for masterful handling of period subject matter.-Biography:Mauro Bolognini was born in Pistoia, Tuscany....
's L'assolute naturale (1969) was released complete with a "chaste" full nude shot.
Personal quotes
- On her infamous love scene – "Of course, if it had not been for the director, I wouldn't have done this film."
Selected filmography
- Swordsman of SienaSwordsman of SienaSwordsman of Siena is a 1962 Italian adventure film directed by Baccio Bandini and starring Stewart Granger, Sylva Koscina and Christine Kaufmann...
(1962) - Hot Enough for JuneHot Enough for JuneHot Enough for June is a 1964 British spy comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas and featuring Dirk Bogarde, Sylva Koscina, Robert Morley, Leo McKern, John Le Mesurier and Roger Delgado. It was based on the 1960 novel "The Night of Wenceslas" by Lionel Davidson and directed by Ralph Thomas. It was...
(1964) - The Dictator's GunsThe Dictator's GunsThe Dictator's Guns is a 1965 French and Italian crime film directed by Claude Sautet.-Cast:*Lino Ventura ... Jacques Cournot*Sylva Koscina ... Rae Osborne*Alberto de Mendoza ... Hendrix*Leo Gordon ... Morrison*Antonio Casas...
(1965) - Deadlier Than the MaleDeadlier Than the MaleDeadlier Than the Male is a 1967 British action film featuring the character of Bulldog Drummond. It is one of the many take-offs of James Bond produced during the 1960s but based on an established detective fiction hero...
(1967) - Kampf um Rom IKampf um Rom IKampf um Rom I is a 1968 West German historical drama film directed by Robert Siodmak, about Justinian's attempts to repel barbarian incursions and reclaim those parts of the empire already lost. Before screening it in the US in 1973 both parts were combined to one and shortened from over three...
(1968) - Kampf um Rom II (1969)
- Sunday LoversSunday LoversSunday Lovers is a 1980 internationally co-produced romantic comedy film directed by Bryan Forbes, Gene Wilder, Dino Risi and Edouard Molinaro. It starred Roger Moore, Gene Wilder, Priscilla Barnes, Lynn Redgrave, Denholm Elliott and Kathleen Quinlan...
(1980)