Pia Zadora
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| Born: | May 4, 1954 Hoboken, New Jersey, USA |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Actress |
Pia Zadora (born May 4, 1954) is an American actress and singer.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life
Born Pia Alfreda Schipani in Hoboken, New Jersey, of part Polish and Italian descent. She adapted part of her mother's maiden name (Zadorowski) as her stage name. She appeared as a child actress with legendary Broadway star Tallulah Bankhead in Midgie Purvis.
She attended elementary and middle school in Forest Hills, New York, at Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, the same parochial school as Ray Romano and David Caruso.
[edit] Film career
Her first film appearance was in 1964's infamous Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, as Girmar, a young Martian girl. She won a Golden Globe as 1982's "Most Promising New Star," but also won "Worst New Star" in the 1982 Golden Raspberry Awards. She starred in the 1983 film The Lonely Lady. She won the now defunct "Best New Star of the Year" Golden Globe for the film Butterfly despite the fact that she actually made her acting debut eighteen years earlier. There were rumors that her husband, Israeli multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis (owner of McCrory's), who financed the movie, bribed the critics.[1]
Zadora garnered both attention and ridicule that year by posing for the press cavorting in a public fountain and wearing a Tanga Maillot swimsuit. This resulted in many photos of her and her shapely "can" (posterior) at the event with a seemingly appropriate homonym, the Cannes Film Festival. These photos appeared in various publications. In contrast, Newsweek published what they sarcastically referred to as a "rare head-on" photo of the actress.[2]
In 1988 she played a small role in John Waters' Hairspray as a beatnik. Waters has never been shy about expressing his ardent admiration for Pia Zadora's work, even interviewing her on one occasion.
Her movie career has been a series of lows, with no hits, and with further Golden Raspberries to her credit, including "Worst New Star of the Decade" in the 1989 Golden Raspberry Awards.
She has attained some success as a singer, and has had several hit singles throughout the world. In 1984, she received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Her cover version of the Shirley Ellis hit, "The Clapping Song", reached the U.S. Top 40 in 1983, and she had a minor hit with a duet with Jermaine Jackson titled "When The Rain Begins To Fall" in 1984 (In Germany, this song was a #1 hit for four weeks). She released Pia & Phil, an album of standards with the London Philharmonic in 1987. In 1988, she teamed with famed producers Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and released an album entitled "When the Lights Go Out."
Later in 1994 Zadora played a small role in Naked Gun 33 1/3 in the final act in a comedy sketch as she sang in the Academy Awards.
An urban legend has frequently been circulated that Zadora once starred in a production of The Diary of Anne Frank, in which her performance was so bad that an audience member yelled "She's in the attic!" when the Nazis showed up. Zadora has, in fact, never acted in a production of The Diary of Anne Frank.[1][3]
In an interview with Larry King, at the peak of her popularity, she readily acknowledged the ridicule that some had heaped upon her, and pointed out that it started with the fact that, "I have a funny name." She appeared on King's show three times: in 1986, 1990 and 1993.
[edit] Private life
Zadora now lives with her children (from two former marriages) in wealthy retirement, thanks to ex-husband Meshulam Riklis. Zadora gained notoriety when she and Riklis bought the Beverly Hills landmark mansion Pickfair in January of 1988 and later demolished it. The mansion, former home of early movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, was one of Beverly Hills' most famous privately owned properties. To show his "love and affection", Riklis had an oil portrait commissioned of Zadora in the nude. Visitors to the Pickfair Mansion were greeted by the portrait.[1] Zadora is an active contributor to both Republican and Democratic candidates. [1]
