Sylva Koscina Profile

Sylva Koscina

22 August 33	is born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, later to become Croatia
c. 45	moves with her family to Italy at age 12
	enrolls as a physics major at the University of Naples
	goes to Rome and begins modeling
54	is “Miss Di Tappa” and discovered when exchanging a kiss with the winner of the Giro d’Italia, a Rome-to-Naples bicycle race. The resulting picture of the moment is published in newspapers all over Europe and leads to her being offered a job as a model.
56	director Pietro Germi sees her in the newspaper and casts her for his The Railroad Man
	signs a contract with producer Carlo Ponti
c. 58	feels abandoned and alone when Ponti and his wife, actress Sophia Loren, leave for Hollywood
63	her co-star in Il Fornaretto di Venzia, German Fred Williams, will remember her as a pretty hysterical partner. She always has her lover with her and chases him around a lot for her handbag.
67	marries Italian Raimondo Castelli, a producer with Minerva Films
May 67	is featured in Playboy
March 69	has a brawl with co-star Laurence Harvey while filming Kampf um Rom. The actor punches her in the jaw so hard that the shot has to be halted.
69	is back in Yugoslavia for the filming of The Battle of Neretva
Late 60s	escapes death when the caretaker at her Italian villa goes berserk and shoots three people to death while she’s filming in South Africa
72	some scenes of her lovemaking to Gabriele Tinti in Lisa and the Devil have to be cut because they are considered pornographic
June 75	is on the cover of and featured in the Italian Playboy
26 December 94	dies at age 61 in Rome, Italy, after a long battle with cancer

Sources: Film Fatales by Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul, Unofficial Homepage, www.IMDb.com, Fred Williams for www.terrorverlag.de, Classic Physique, Screen Portraits
Recommended Books:
Links: Filmography Unofficial Home Page JSR Pages: Sylva Koscina Brian's Drive-In Theater: Sylva Koscina