Sylva Koscina

Sylvia Koscina was an actress and sex symbol who appeared in a wide array of Italian genre films beginning in the late 1950s. Originally from Yugoslavia, Koscina moved to Italy to be with her sister during World War II. She worked as a model and attended the University of Naples to study physics, but it is unsurprising that this natural beauty would become part of Italy's ascendant film industry. In 1958, she was second-billed in the seminal sword-and-sandals epic "Hercules," starring Steve Reeves; the film was an international hit. Koscina worked steadily in a range of comedies, swashbucklers, and romances over the ensuing years. She made two spy spoofs with British director Ralph Thomas: 1964's "Agent 8 3/4" and 1967's "Deadlier Than the Male," in which she played an assassin. She had a small part in Federico Fellini's 1965 film "Juliet of the Spirits," and in 1968, she was cast opposite Paul Newman in "The Secret War of Harry Frigg." Koscina caused a scandal over what would today be considered tasteful nude photos in a 1967 Italian edition of Playboy and only furthered the scandal by appearing nude in the 1969 film "He and She." Film roles dwindled by the late 1970s, although she did make a notably erotic appearance in Mario Bava's 1974 film, "Lisa and the Devil." In the 1980s, she frequently appeared on Italian variety shows in addition to a long-running theater performance in which she appeared nude. Koscina died of breast cancer in 1994.