Sandra MiloFellini’s muse, died at the age of 90 in her home, has accompanied the lives of many generations of Italians. Pseudonym of Salvatrice Elena Greco, born in Tunis on 11 March 1933, Milo had a singularity: her way of being, her personality almost overshadowed her very long and extraordinary career. Half an hour on the phone with her and you immediately wanted her to be your friend: you were already ready to confide in her and ask her for advice.
His filmography is ‘monster’, ranging from Roberto Rossellini to Antonio Pietrangeli, from Sergio Corbucci to Federico Fellini, from Luigi Zampa to Dino Risi, from Luciano Salce to Duccio Tessari, from Pupi Avati to Gabriele Salvatores up to Gabriele Muccino, only to name a few. Socialist at the time of Bettino Craxi whom she dated for two years, lover of Federico Fellini for seventeen years (something she confessed for the first time in Porta a Porta in 2009), it can be said that she made a real film of her emotional life . And this already from the wedding in 1948, at fifteen years old, with the Marquis Cesare Rodighiero (marriage lasted 21 days), up to the eleven-year relationship with Moris Ergas (from whom Deborah was born) to finally arrive at the union with Ottavio De Lollis (with whom she had Ciro and Azzurra). Always in the spirit of “a vanishing point full of wisdom”, in 2007 Milo, during a TV interview, said that she had helped her dying mother die.
Video Goodbye to Sandra Milo
“My mother was wasting away – the actress said then through tears -. So, she asked me to help her die. She made me leave the room, and she died, alone, as she wanted. I know that there is a lot people are in favor of euthanasia and many are against it, but how can you say ‘no’ if you know that that person will have no escape due to the evil that has struck them? People must be able to die with dignity.”
Returning to her career, her first important role came in 1959 with ‘General Della Rovere’, directed by Roberto Rossellini, in which she played the role of a prostitute alongside Vittorio De Sica. A similar role was played the following year in ‘Adua and her companions’ by Antonio Pietrangeli. She is then the protagonist with Eduardo De Filippo, Vittorio Gassman and Marcello Mastroianni in the film ‘Ghosts in Rome’ again by Pietrangeli.
In 1962 he returned to the cinema with ‘The Shortest Day’ by Sergio Corbucci, where he acted with Toto’, Eduardo and Peppino De Filippo, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Ugo Tognazzi and Aldo Fabrizi. Then the meeting with Fellini who affectionately called her ‘Sandrocchia’ was crucial and made her the protagonist of two masterpieces: 8½ in 1963 and Juliet of the Spirits in 1965. She was also directed, among many, by Luigi Zampa in ‘Frenesia dell’estate ‘ from 1963, by Dino Risi in ‘L’ombrane’ from 1965, alongside Enrico Maria Salerno. Sandra Milo also entered the history of Italian TV for a famous joke against her in 1990, during the afternoon broadcast ‘Love is a wonderful thing’. An anonymous live phone call informs that her son Ciro is hospitalized in serious condition following a road accident. Milo can’t hold back her tears and she runs away from the studio screaming ‘Ciro, Ciro’. The news of the accident turned out to be false, but her screams became a catchphrase in the media.
Among her latest commitments Pupi Avati wants her in 2003 in his film ‘The heart elsewhere’ and in 2010 Salvatores in his ‘Happy Family’ while they arrive at the theater for Sandra Milo: ‘8 women and a mystery’, ‘The oval bed’ , ‘Steel Magnolias’, ‘The Widows’ Club and ‘Daddy’s Girlfriend’ ‘.
In 2003 we saw her on Sky Uno in the television journey of ‘Quella bravegirls’ alongside Mara Maionchi and Marisa Laurito and in the episode of ‘BellaMà’ on Rai2 in which Pierluigi Diaco left her to host the program for 40 minutes in which she confronted with the boys in the studio, which will be performed again today.
Sandra Milo in 8½
For further information Agenzia ANSA Sandra Milo and Federico Fellini, a long history between set and life – News – Ansa.it Fellini’s muse who transformed her into a femme fatale, lover and mother (ANSA)
Then the meeting with Fellini who affectionately called her ‘Sandrocchia’ was crucial and made her the protagonist of two masterpieces: 8½ in 1963 and Juliet of the Spirits in 1965. She was also directed, among many, by Luigi Zampa in ‘Frenesia dell’estate ‘ from 1963, by Dino Risi in ‘L’ombrane’ from 1965, alongside Enrico Maria Salerno.
The interview with Fellini on Sandra Milo
The joke that entered TV history
His children: ‘He left us peacefully, falling asleep’
“Today at 8:25 in the morning our mother passed away. She left us peacefully, falling asleep in her bed, the way she had expressly requested, surrounded by our love and that of her beloved dogs Jim and Lady.” Debora, Ciro and Azzurra, Sandra Milo’s children, announced it in a post on Facebook.
Goodbye mom.
You are light again…In the wind.🖤💔 pic.twitter.com/XjkwTfzveQ— debora ergas🇮🇹🇬🇷 (@debora_ergas) January 29, 2024
“We ask you to respect our immense pain and to pray for her soul, addressing her a thought of light. We sincerely thank our father Ottavio de Lolllis, the lawyer Bruno della Ragione, Maurizio Pennesi, Alberto Matano, Cristina Morea, Maria Grazia Cucinotta , Claudio and Pino Insegno, Franco Brel, Angelo Genovese, Franco Lattanzi and his wife Rita, Enrico Pola, Luigi Alesi, Angelo De Biasio, Carlotta and Gabriele Malaguti, Marina and Tullio, Simona Ballarino. And if we have forgotten anyone we sincerely apologize “.
Video Sandra Milo: ‘I am grateful to the directors and my children’
Diaco: ‘Sincere friend and precious travel companion’
“Sandra was a sincere friend and a precious traveling companion. I thank her for teaching me that any negative moment, even the most painful, could be faced with a smile and altruism.” Pierluigi Diaco, colleague and personal friend of Sandra Milo, remembers her like this on the day of her death, today at the age of 90.
Sandra Milo talks about herself to BellaMa’ on March 31, 2023
“For the working group of ‘Io e te’ and ‘Io e te di notte’ she was an inexhaustible source of enthusiasm and ideas, a fan of others, a woman always ready to get involved with humility and team spirit. I am happy that in 2021 she received the award she deserved, that David di Donatello for lifetime achievement which consecrated her for what she was: a great artist” says Diaco. “Today’s episode of BellaMa ‘will be entirely dedicated to her, with the revival of her last TV show, which took place with us last year” announces Diaco.
Orietta Berti: ‘Diva who was still waiting for great love’
“Sandra was cheerful, cordial, friendly. She never put on airs, she felt like an ordinary woman, but she wasn’t. She was unique: she was the Italian Marilyn, always elegant and never vulgar”. This is how Orietta Berti remembers Sandra Milo, who passed away this morning in Rome at the age of 90. “For me she was a sincere friend – continues the singer who worked with her and Mara Maionchi on the Sky programQuelle bravagirls -, we had known each other for a long time, from her iconic show Piccoli Fans, to which she always invited me. But every time that we would meet on some show, we would spend time in my or his dressing room.”
With Those Good Girls they worked together for almost a month. “And she was so active, at 8 o’clock she was already ready, hair and make-up. Even if it was autumn, if we went along the streets of the villages, she never gave up her stiletto heels: and so when she got stuck between the cobblestones I I lifted a leg and Mara retrieved the stuck shoe. How many heels did she peel…”.
The memory of Orietta, who does not hide the fact that she cried this morning with Maionchi, is however light and poetic. “She was like that, she left us her smile, her cheeky air of a young girl who hadn’t aged. And then she was so poetic: one day we were in Seville and a motorboat passed by. For her, the trail left behind was a bridal veil that flutters’. She saw the poetic side of things in everything. She believed in love and was still waiting for the ideal man, Prince Charming. She looked like a 10 year old girl, but she was very profound and cultured, despite a very hard, dedicated private life to the three children she raised alone.” Orietta Berti also remembers, with a smile, some of Sandrocchia’s little quirks: “He always demanded a princely breakfast and so, when we filmed for the programme, first we had breakfast for the filming and then that for Sandra”. But never a word from her against friends and colleagues. “I never heard her gossip, never an envious phrase. She was a hard worker, respectful of others. She was a diva in the sixties, but she never got too big.”
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