Biography
Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was a model and actress. A 1951 Miss Sweden -- she competed in the Miss Universe pageant -- she is best-known for her role as Sylvia in La Dolce Vita, directed by the late Federico Fellini.
Ethel Merman dubbed the well-endowed Ekberg (measurements 40-22-36) "the thinking man's dunce cap: two of them." Bob Hope joked that her parents had received the Nobel Prize for architecture.
She made many movies, but few in English. Among her most prominent films are the low-budget Screaming Mimi in 1958, Fellini's La Dolce Vita in 1960, in which she played the unattainable "dream woman"; Boccaccio '70 in 1962, a movie that also featured Sophia Loren; two films in 1966, The Alphabet Murders and Way...Way Out, the latter introducing Linda Harrison in her first movie; Woman Times Seven in 1967, with Shirley MacLaine; and a small role in If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium in 1969.
Ekberg was married to the British actor Anthony Steel from 1956 to 1959. From 1963 to 1975, she was married to the actor Rik Van Nutter; during their marriage, she had several miscarriages, but no successful pregnancies.
She reportedly also was romantically involved with Tyrone Power, Marcello Mastroianni, Errol Flynn, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra, and Gary Cooper; she also had a three-year affair with the late Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli.
She has lived alone in Rome, Italy for many years.
