What are octogenarian actresses Sofia Loren, Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Shirley MacLaine, Joan Collins and Ursula Andress doing today?
They have many things in common: that in addition to being talented they were the most beautiful, desired and valued actresses in the second half of the last century; authentic sex symbols of the so-called ‘seventh art’ at a time when it began, it became a prosperous industry and in which at that time films made in France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain –to a lesser extent– and obviously the United States predominated. Regarding the recent announcement of the Italian artist Gina Lollobrigida to launch herself into politics at the age of 95, as she opportunely recorded it MyREDView In its last edition, we told you how the actresses Sofía Loren, Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Shirley MacLaine, Joan Collins, Faye Dunaway, Jane Fonda, Ursula Andress and Raquel Welch live the twilight of their lives, authentic divas that at the time eclipsed Movie industry. Although time has left its mark on them – they are around 85 years old – this is more evident in some than in others, not only physically but also in the lifestyle they have led when the spotlights of their environment began to go out …
SOPHIA LOREN Rome, Italy, September 20, 1934
Loren will be 88 in a month. Although she rarely attends public events, she is the Italian diva par excellence, and an example of how to overcome the passage of time to reach the golden age of life with beauty, health and the appreciation and admiration of the film industry. Although she lived her beauty heyday in the 50s, at her age she maintains an excellent physical shape, and her face has aged with all the dignity and fair interventions that have allowed her to maintain her expression. . He lived for three years in the United States, without much success in his work, but he returned to Europe and shot again with great filmmakers, such as his friend Vittorio de Sica, thanks to whom he won the first of the two Oscars he won in 1960. She was married for 41 years to director and producer Carlo Ponti, with whom she had two sons, Edoardo and Carlo, and four grandchildren. Today, Sofia Loren leads a very normal life in her mansion on the outskirts of Geneva, Switzerland. Her back looks hunched and she moves with more and more difficulty. She goes for a walk in the large garden of her house, prepares tasty types of pasta herself, usually has dinner around seven in the evening, goes to bed early and, if someone gets her phone, it is most likely that she answers it herself .
BRIGITTE BARDOT Paris, France, September 28, 1934
Brigitte Bardot, 88, is one of the erotic myths of all time. This model and actress, who was considered for years the most beautiful model in France, a “sex symbol” in the 50s, 60s and 70s who became famous with the movie “And God created woman”, directed by Roger Vadim. He retired from the entertainment industry in 1973, after acting in 47 movies and numerous musicals and recording more than 60 songs. An icon of French popular culture, he was awarded the Legion of Honor in 1985, but he refused to accept it. Upon retiring from show business he became an animal rights activist. In the 2000s, he created controversy by criticizing immigration and Islam in France; she has been fined five times for inciting racial hatred, and in the pandemic she has been embroiled in controversy for defending the anti-vaccine movement. For many years, Brigitte Bardot apparently gave up any possibility of aesthetic retouching, so she simply does not hide how old she is. Pictures of her on social media reveal the extreme change in her appearance. For almost half a century, she has lived in her mansion La Madrague, in Saint Tropez, in the south of France, a shelter-house in which more than 1,000 abandoned animals live, and in which she is accompanied by her fourth husband , businessman Bernard d’Ormale, who was an adviser to the politician Jean Marie Le Pen.
JOHN COLLINS Paddington, London, UK, May 23, 1933
89 years old, he was a real sex symbol in the fifties thanks to the movie land of pharaohs (1953) and defied the censorship of the time with his exotic dances in The opposite sex (1956) and The island in the sun (1957). With a hectic private life, Joan Collins ended up in the 60s and 70s starring in B movies. One of them, the erotic tape The Stallion (1979), made her look at her to play Dynasty. It was in that series, playing the role of Alexis Colby, when fame touched her again, to the point that it earned her a Golden Globe and a hectic career in front of the cameras. With more than 70 productions behind her and after having participated in famous television series in recent years, she shook Hollywood in 2021 by publishing a book with her memoirs, My diary without reservations. After 70 years of uninterrupted work, Collins declares herself a “Hollywood survivor”, a mecca of cinema from which she misses the old glamor of the red carpets, as she says that today’s are lies. She has had famous romances with stars such as Warren Beatty and has been married five times, the last of which was 18 years ago with Percy Gibson, with whom she currently lives in an apartment in the exclusive Belgravia neighborhood in London.
SHIRLEY MACLAINE Richmond, Virginia, United States, April 24, 1934
This multidisciplinary artist has done it all. Dancer, actress, singer, writer of books on spirituality and political activist. She won the Oscar for the strength of affection, in 1983. His last screen appearance was in 2016. He was married to producer Steve Parker, with whom he had a daughter who grew up with his father. Funny and dramatic, a defender of the new age and reincarnation, MacLaine has moved like a fish in water between two worlds: that of the idealized stars of classic Hollywood and the more realistic of the new Hollywood. She has known how to reach old age without fuss or reproaches or regrets. As she never based her career on the physical, she has not suffered any disorder as she has aged. In recent roles, she played the grandmother of Cameron Diaz and starred in a series in which she wonderfully portrayed an ailing Coco Chanel. In the opinion of the critics, this respected actress has been able to live through all the stages of her long existence, enjoy them, adapt to the circumstances and reach the age of eighty-eight with dignity.
URSULA ANDRESS Ostermundigen, Switzerland, March 19, 1936
Ursula Andress is one of those actresses who do not accept the passage of time. She is 86 years old, an age that she doesn’t really look like, but in her public appearances she has received criticism for the way she does her hair, make-up and dress that, she makes sure of her, detracts a bit from her dignity. One movie was enough for her Agent 007 vs. Doctor No. (1962) -especially in the scene when she comes out wearing a white bathing suit- so that she was considered a sex symbol, as well as one of the highest paid in Hollywood. She had an affair with Elvis Presley, who not only gave her 20 unreleased songs (they were never published because she didn’t like them), but also a BMW that years later she gave to a mechanic. Andress wanted a life of luxury and glamor and at the time he got it. Marlon Brando, James Dean, Elvis Presley, Ryan O’Neal, Helmut Berger and Franco Nero, among others, became obsessed with her. She had more stable relationships with John Derek (her only husband); Harry Hamlin (father of her only son, Dimitri, now a 42-year-old philosopher); Jean-Paul Belmondo and Fabio Testi. The Swiss actress, who stopped acting in 2001, suffers from severe osteoporosis that has gradually weakened her bones, for which she decided to seclude herself fifteen years ago in her huge 18th-century estate in Italy.
JANE FONDA New York, United States, December 21, 1937
Jane Fonda is already 85 years old, but she does not represent them, it seems that she was 10 or 20 years younger. And she has known how to take advantage of this advantage that she has over her colleagues of the same age as her, since she is still active in the cinema and on television. In fact these days she is promoting the seventh season of the successful comedy grace and frankie, in which he stars alongside actress Lily Tomlin, 82. In addition, until recently she was still a beauty ambassador for L’Oréal Paris, and since the 1980s she has been the ‘queen’ of aerobics, since exercise is her great formula for keeping her body and mind in shape, for which she was chosen as the image Swedish sportswear brand H&M. The other thing is her good genetics and a moderate passage through the hands of surgeons. This versatile American actress, producer, writer, blogger and political activist is the daughter and sister of two well-known actors, Henry and Peter Fonda, respectively. She rose to fame in the 1960s, when for more than a decade she was cataloged as an erotic symbol. In 62 years of acting career, she has won two Oscars, four Golden Globes, two Baftas and an Emmy. She classifies herself as liberal and feminist; she as a strong opponent of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq and also a defender of environmental causes and civil rights. She was married three times (to Roger Vadim, Tom Hayden and Ted Turner).
RACHEL WELCH Chicago, Illinois, United States, September 5, 1940
Jo Raquel Tejada, the daughter of an American and a Bolivian, became Raquel Welch at age 19, when she married (the first of four) her high school boyfriend, James Welch. Known as ‘the body’, for her spectacular figure – that’s why she won several beauty contests –, she reached her professional peak in the 60’s and 70’s and reaches 80 years old very proud of her roots, because she broke the dictatorship of blondes in the field of ‘sex symbols’. Before coming to Hollywood she worked on television in San Diego, but in 1964 she was given her first big break in the movies. Mother of two children, she starred in dozens of movies and more than a hundred magazine covers. In 1982 she found success in theater with the musical Woman of the Year; In the last two decades she has appeared in famous TV series, so that today, at 82 years old, she is perfect personally and professionally. Despite her fame, Welch has never stopped seeing herself as a conservative, familiar and calm woman from the American Midwest, who has managed to dose her public appearances, as well as her political manifestations and other types of activism. her.