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5 Most Beautiful Women In The History Of Cinema

Zak Ben - Sunday, August 31, 2014
Of all the media, cinema is perhaps the one that shows more than any other power of suggestion with regard to the spectators: for some alchemy, the image projected on the big screen manages to scare, to fall in love and engage much more easily than than they do television, photography or art, and, moreover, several essays and even films themselves (one of all, The Purple Rose of Cairo , but also, in the most tragic tones, the classic Sunset Boulevard ) investigated several times this mystery.


From the early days of cinema, indeed, an element that has benefited from the magical aura was the feminine beauty, often used by filmmakers and architect of the success or failure of various commercial films: so we had the stars who have made dreams of entire generations, from Jean Harlow to Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich to Ingrid Bergman, Lauren Bacall Katharine Hepburn, Sophia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, up to the latest Winona Ryder, Nicole Kidman, Angelina Jolie or Natalie Portman. Hard to say what were the biggest and the most beautiful. We have chosen five of them - we have not mentioned in our list, not to spoil the surprise - among those who, it seems, have marked the most the popular imagination with their charm and their lives, as well as their acting. Here they are.




Rita Hayworth
The disturbing Gilda gloves blacks

There were certainly already been some dive to the silent era, and many of them were born after the conversion to sound, at the end of the twenties; but it was mainly after the end of World War II that the phenomenon became planetary thanks on the one hand to the golden age of Hollywood - who had now put under contract with the best directors, writers and technicians in the world and had developed a production system efficient and oiled - on the other hand the spread of the American way of life now applied to the entire West. The first woman who achieved great personal success of all this was probably the disturbing Rita Hayworth, who in 1946 starred in Gilda , a film by Charles Vidor entered in the annals especially for the scenes you see in the video below. Born in Brooklyn in 1918, Hayworth was actually called Margarita Carmen Cansino, the daughter of a Spanish dancer and an American dancer (Hayworth was in fact his mother's surname); for this already twelve years old he began to tour the country, accompanying his father in his tour of dance and was soon spotted by Harry Cohn, founder and boss of Columbia, which began to make it appear in some small film. But it was only after a complete redesign of its image - with the hairline raised by electrolysis and hair dyed red - which began to get the first important parts, as in Only Angels Have Wings , Strawberry Blonde , Blood and Sand and Charm , often dancing and singing (a memorable duet with Fred Astaire in You've never looked so good ). The apex touched him with the aforementioned Gilda , played when he had already left her first husband and was married to Orson Welles, in one of the most talked about unions in Hollywood: the film had a dark lady with a mysterious past, able to disturb the public singing Put the Blame on Mame (albeit dubbed) and stripping of one long black glove, but also give rise to an ambivalent relationship with his sparring partner, Glenn Ford, which also had to endure the jealousy of Cohn, who said to have hung with microphones of the dressing room Hayworth, confident that between his two star there was a relationship. But what was perhaps the swan song of the actress the following year appeared blonde in The Lady from Shanghai , Welles directed by her husband, from whom she divorced but almost immediately to marry Prince Ali Khan and move for a few years in Pakistan. He returned to Hollywood in 1952, but it was not the first woman, tried a psychic level and addicted to alcohol.





Marilyn Monroe
The sex symbol of the cinema par excellence

"Goodbye, Norma Jean," Elton John sang in 1973, in a song that has entered history to celebrate all the premature deaths of people who have made ​​us dream . The Norma Jean who lived like a candle in the wind was indeed Marilyn Monroe, one of the most popular dive and most unfortunate in the history of cinema, able to literally dominate the cinematic landscape of the 50s with its beauty and its character, but also to find death, a probable suicide, in 1962, at only 36 years, leaving an indelible mark for this that has led to celebrate it in movies, songs, magazines , artwork , posters, advertising (even posthumously) and a host of other products. Founded in 1926 as Norma Jean Mortenson, had had a difficult childhood, but after the war had begun to appear in some major films in Hollywood, albeit initially with minor roles; the breakthrough came when he dyed his hair - already lightened by a first modeling agency for which he had worked at the end of the 40s - to platinum blonde, it appearing Monkey Business , and then especially in Niagara , the 1953 film that allowed access to leading roles. From then on it was an unceasing string of successes, which made ​​her the sex symbol par excellence of those years: Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , when singing Bye Bye Baby and especially Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friends in a pink dress that drew own imagination Gilda ; How to Marry a Millionaire , which opened the way for the brilliant roles; When the wife is on vacation , with the famous scene of skirt lifted by the air that comes out of the subway grate scene that excited million viewers but also led to the separation from the jealous Joe DiMaggio, recently married, The Prince and the Showgirl , which she herself produced; and Some Like It Hot , in which an exasperated Billy Wilder persuaded to work with her ​​again despite not ever remember the jokes and that was probably his swan song. His problems were at that point already quite well known: yet another marriage, this time with Arthur Miller, had come to an end after a series of miscarriages, and the ceremony of the Golden Globe Awards, receiving the award for his portrayal of Sugar "Kane "Kowalczyk (or Sugar" Candy "Kandinsky, Italian), appeared visibly drunk; also i never fully understood but probably stormy relationship with the Kennedy clan did the rest, making her feel more and more alone and abandoned although it was, in fact, the most loved woman in the world.





Grace Kelly
The "hot ice" which became a princess

If Rita Hayworth was the red fire of Marilyn Monroe and the prototype of the buxom blonde, Grace Kelly was the icy diva instead of high society, as stylish as unreachable, not only for the parts that he played in his short - but unforgettable - film career but also for his biographical facts. Born in Philadelphia in 1929, came from a rich and influential Catholic family: his father was in fact become a multi-millionaire thanks to the tomato and had won three gold medals in rowing at the Olympics; his mother, of German origin, was then the first woman to teach physical education at the University of Pennsylvania, while his uncle, George Kelly was a playwright who had also won the Pulitzer. After a brief career as a model, the scion of the family began to film at age 22, finding her first important role the year after opposite Gary Cooper in High Noon ; in 1952 won the first Oscar nomination for Mogambo , a prelude to the meeting with Alfred Hitchcock that would make her enter the Olympus of the most revered actresses of the film and it would also indirectly changed my life. For the Kelly Hitchcock - which he symbolically called "hot ice", to emphasize the erotic charge in an outline, however, cold and aloof - he played in three consecutive films, Dial M for Murder , Rear Window and To Catch a Thief ; on the set of the latter, filmed in the Principality of Monaco, she met Prince Rainier for some time in search of a wife who could bear him children and thus ensure its status to remain independent from France  (in the absence of an heir, in fact, according to the laws of that time would have been absorbed from Paris): the two fell in love and convolarono a wedding in 1956, marking the final withdrawal from the scene by the actress, who ended his career in High Society , a remake of The Philadelphia Story , a film which fit very well to its origins. He died in 1982, only 52 years, due to an unfortunate accident falling into a ravine while driving his Rover V8 with 3500S alongside her youngest daughter, Stephanie, then 17 years old.





Audrey Hepburn
The charm of innocence

There are many elements that are common Grace Kelly and Audrey Hepburn: both were born in 1929, both came from wealthy families, both had achieved success in the mid-50s despite being physically the exact opposite of the "plus" that went to the increased not only in Hollywood; both were then in some way related to Europe - one by birth and one by adoption - and then both at some point in their career they decided to retire from the film industry to devote himself to his family. Audrey Hepburn was born with the name Audrey Ruston in Brussels from an aristocratic Anglo-Dutch city that changes often, but the advent of Nazism would somehow broken, the father, a sympathizer of Hitler, in fact abandoned her, her mother and his half-brothers, forcing them to take refuge in Holland, where they suffered great hardship during the German occupation (and where Audrey also had to change the name and surname does not sound too "English" invaders). On the day of her sixteenth birthday, however, Holland was liberated by the Allies, and this allowed her to complete her studies in dance and move to London, where he began timidly also an acting career. She was noticed by the old writer Colette while he was in Monte Carlo for a film, she was offered the lead role in the preparation of Gigi that he was preparing to Broadway and the success of the comedy allowed her to groped his papers to Hollywood: began in 1952 and almost immediately, and unexpectedly, got the part of Princess Anne in Roman Holiday , snatching the much more expert Elizabeth Taylor and immediately acquiring the Oscar for Best Actress. Her beauty and innocence captured audiences around the world, he could admire it a little later in Sabrina , where he still show off its elegance and good taste in the choice of clothes; was then the star of Cinderella in Paris , where he could dance, Arianna , the acclaimed story of a nun and especially Breakfast at Tiffany's , in a character as usual elegant but much more extroverted than she was used to (after in Truman Capote's novel the female protagonist was clearly inspired by Marilyn Monroe). Then was the turn of Those two , Charade and My Fair Lady , but around the mid-sixties his marriage with his colleague and producer Mel Ferrer was in crisis and after the divorce and subsequent marriage to Italian psychiatrist Andrea Dotti l ' she decided to retire for ten years from the scene; returned to acting in 1976 in Robin and Marian , and in other films, but in those years he devoted himself mainly to charities, proving to be one of the most active supporters of UNICEF. He died of cancer in January 1993, to 63 years.





Elizabeth Taylor
The former child prodigy by many marriages

Throughout his career Audrey Hepburn turned out in spite of one of the most dangerous opponents to Elizabeth Taylor, who twice saw a blow by actress Anglo-Dutch major role was going to be assigned to her (in addition to holidays Roman , suffered this fate for My Fair Lady ). Born in London in 1932 by two Americans who lived in Britain, Elizabeth Taylor moved to America at the outbreak of war as a child and began to appear in various films, due to its already obvious beauty, just eleven years as recited in Back at home, Lassie! , first in a long series of films and television dramas of success, while the following year made ​​from shoulder to another child-prodigy (now grown), ie, Mickey Rooney, in the Grand Prix , which registered large collections. Little Women , 1949, was the last film in which she played a little girl, and the year after, just 18 years old, she starred with Spencer Tracy de Father of the Bride and A Place in the Sun , film in which he played for the first time the role of the spoiled rich girl and showed that despite his young age already to be able to seduce a sex symbol with skill the character played by Montgomery Clift. After a series of ugly film in which she had been forced by the contract with the studio, in 1956, came back in vogue thanks to the giant , which was followed by the hugely successful international film like The Tree of Life with his friend Montgomery Clift, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof with Paul Newman, Suddenly Last Summer still with Clift and Katharine Hepburn, Venus in mink , with whom he won his first Academy Award, and Cleopatra . It was during the filming of this exhausting and complicated blockbuster, as we have reported elsewhere , he met Richard Burton, then married and the father of the family (as well as the Taylor was already the fourth marriage): The report caused a scandal but the two were married soon obtained their divorces, however, giving rise to a troubled marriage (they divorced in '74, ten years after the wedding - the wedding far more lasting life of the actress, as with any of the others even came to 6 years - unless then remarry in '75 for one more year). Just then played with Burton Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? which earned her second Oscar for the physical metamorphosis also to which he subjected himself (dyed his hair gray, fattening and there was make-up so you look much older). With the arrival of the 70's his popularity dropped and from the following decade was limited mostly to appearances or small parts in films and television series. She died in 2011 due to heart problems that plagued some time.