Anita Ekberg

Blonde and buxom to a physics-defying degree, Swedish born actress Anita Ekberg became the very definition of cinematic sex goddess with her iconic performance in Italian director Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" (1960). Coming to America after winning the Miss Sweden beauty competition in 1950, Ekberg soon secured herself a contract with Universal Pictures and began a string of appearances in such features as "Blood Alley" (1955), "Hollywood or Bust" (1956) and the historical epic "War and Peace" (1956). Often eclipsing her work on screen, however, were the alleged romantic liaisons with many of Hollywood's most powerful leading men, including Tyrone Power, Gary Cooper and Frank Sinatra. Sub-par genre pictures with titles like "Sheba and the Gladiator" (1959) were fast becoming Ekberg's stock-in-trade before Fellini cast the stunning actress in "La Dolce Vita," instantly making her co-star Marcello Mastroianni an international superstar, but oddly, doing little to advance her career. After a few more mainstream efforts like "4 for Texas" (1963), Ekberg settled for decades of forgettable European-produced B-movies until she appeared as herself in the Fellini reminiscence "Intervista" (1987). Although her performance in "La Dolce Vita" far outshone any of Ekberg's performances before or after, the image of her cavorting with Mastroianni in Rome's historic Trevi Fountain would be more than enough to ensure her a place in the pantheon of film's greatest sex symbols for all time. Anita Ekberg died in her adopted home of Italy on January 11, 2015.