Donna Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi
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Donna Marina Torlonia (October 22, 1916–September 15, 1960) was an Italian-American socialite best known as the paternal grandmother of the actress and model Brooke Shields.
She was born in Rome, the youngest daughter of Prince Marino Torlonia, 4th prince of Civitella-Cesi and his wife, Mary Elsie Moore, a daughter of Charles Arthur Moore, a rich shipping broker and hardware manufacturer from Connecticut. Her brother was Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince di Civitella-Cesi, the husband of the Spanish Infanta Doña Beatriz de Borbón y Battenberg (an aunt of King Juan Carlos I of Spain).
The Torlonias were one of the richest Italian families of the 19th century, gaining their fortune in the administration of Vatican finances.
[edit] Marriages
Her first husband was Francis Xavier Shields (1909 - 1975), a well-known American tennis player, whom she met in Rome at a tennis championship. They had two children, Francis Alexander Shields (the father of Brooke Shields and a daughter, Marina Shields. They later divorced.
Her second husband was Edward Slater, by whom she had a son.
[edit] Death
Marina Slater died in an automobile accident.
