Pia Zadora

Infobox actor

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imagesize =
caption =
birthname = Pia Alfreda Schipani
birthdate = birth date and age|1954|5|4
birthplace = Hoboken, New Jersey
occupation = actress, singer
goldenglobeawards = New Star of the Year in a Motion Picture
1982 "Butterfly"
goldenraspberryawards = Worst Actress
1982 "Butterfly"
1983 "The Lonely Lady"
Worst New Star
1982 "Butterfly"
Worst New Star of the Decade
1990 "Butterfly"; "The Lonely Lady"

Pia Zadora (born Pia Alfreda Schipani, May 4, 1954) is an American actress and singer. After years of work as a child actress on Broadway, in regional theater and in the film "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", she came to national attention when, following her starring role in the critically lambasted [ [http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9906E4D71038F936A35751C0A964948260 "New York Times" review of "Butterfly"] ] "Butterfly", she won a Golden Globe Award [ [http://thegoldenglobes.com/welcome.html?yearz/G-1981.html Golden Globes 1981] ] as New Star of the Year over such acclaimed new talents as Kathleen Turner ("Body Heat"), Rachel Ward ("Sharky's Machine"), Craig Wasson ("Four Friends") and Elizabeth McGovern and Howard Rollins (both in "Ragtime)". [ [http://www.geocities.com/piazadora_w/ArtPeopleHowDidZadoraWinGG.html How did actress Pia Zadora ever win a Golden Globe?] ]

When her film career failed to take off, she "reinvented" herself as a singer of popular standards and released several successful albums featuring her solo performance backed by a full symphonic orchestra. Few performers have been more publicly ridiculed than Pia Zadora, [ [http://www.stomptokyo.com/pia/pia-bio.html Pia Zadora - The Biography] ] due primarily to the perception that her career was solely the result of her marriage to billionaire Meshulam Riklis, whom she met when she was 17 and he was 49, but also to her arguably poor choice in film vehicles (she earned two consecutive Razzie Awards for her first two starring vehicles, "Butterfly" and "The Lonely Lady"). Zadora, however, demonstrated a resilient quality and a good-humored sense of self-parody (playing herself in such comedies as "Feel the Motion", "Troop Beverly Hills", and "") that endeared her to many, including the entertainer Frank Sinatra, who toured with her in 1990, and during her years as a singer she earned the respect of many critics who had previously written her off. [ [http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117901779.html?categoryid=33&cs=1 "Variety" review - "Too Short To Be A Rockette"] ]

Biography

Early life

Zadora was born Pia Alfreda Schipani in Hoboken, New Jersey. Her mother, Saturnina "Nina" (née Zadorowski), was a theatrical wardrobe supervisor who worked for Broadway productions, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City Opera, and her father, Alphonse Schipani, was a violinist. [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/55/Pia-Zadora.html Pia Zadora Biography (1956-) ] ] [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9400E4DA1F3FF936A35757C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon= Paid Notice: Deaths SCHIPANI, SATURNINA - New York Times ] ] She is of Polish maternal and Italian paternal descent. [ [http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=PI&s_site=philly&p_multi=PI&p_theme=realcities&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB32C1B074C7374&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM "Philadelphia Inquirer" article, June 30, 1995, Page 20] ] [ [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/61034857.html?dids=61034857:61034857&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&date=Jul+03%2C+1992&author=NANCY+CHURNIN&pub=Los+Angeles+Times+(pre-1997+Fulltext)&desc=Zadora+Brings+Her+Musical+Bio+to+S.D.&pqatl=google Zadora Brings Her Musical Bio to S.D ] ] She adapted part of her mother's maiden name as her stage name. Zadora 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. She played the youngest sister (Bialke) in the Broadway production of "Fiddler on the Roof" (1964-1966).

Film career

Zadora's first film appearance was in 1964's cult classic "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", as Girmar, a young Martian girl (the movie became more famous when shown many years later on the TV series "Mystery Science Theater 3000"). She also sang a song ("Hooray for Santy Claus") in that movie. Her subsequent career made little headway until she met Israeli multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis in 1972, while touring with a road company of a musical production. The two were married on 18 September 1977 (divorced 29 March 1995). Not long after her marriage, she made her breakthrough into public awareness as the "Dubonnet Girl", appearing in near-ubiquitous print ads and television commercials for Dubonnet apéritifs. Not incidentally, her husband was a major shareholder in Dubonnet's American distributor.

Zadora co-starred with Stacy Keach and Orson Welles in the 1982 film "Butterfly", with a steamy plotline revolving around father-daughter incest, and featuring Zadora singing "It’s Wrong For Me To Love You". She went on to win that year's Golden Globe Award as "Best New Star of the Year", amid charges that her wealthy husband had, in effect, bought the award with a high-profile promotional campaign. [http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=35&prgDate=01-20-2007&view=storyview Jan. 20, 2007 transcript] of "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!"] Zadora's curvaceous image filled oversize billboards on Sunset Boulevard, and rumors circulated about lavish junkets to Las Vegas for members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, which sponsors the Golden Globes. Not all critics were enamored of her performance, however; she was awarded "Razzies" as both "Worst New Star" and "Worst Actress" in the 1982 Golden Raspberry Awards.

Zadora next starred in the 1982 film "Fake-Out" (aka "Nevada Heat"), a zany women in prison B-movie co-starring Telly Savalas, and in the 1983 film adaptation of a Harold Robbins novel, "The Lonely Lady," playing the role of an aspiring screenwriter who achieves success after surviving a sexual assault with a garden hose nozzle. She was awarded yet another Razzie, as "Worst Actress" of 1983. On the basis of her multiple awards, the Golden Raspberry Awards later named her "Worst New Star of the Decade (1980-1989)".

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 homonymic Cannes Film Festival. In contrast, "Newsweek" published what it humorously referred to as a "rare head-on" photo of the actress. [ [http://www.bikiniscience.com/chronology/1980-1985_SS/PZ8201_S/PZ8201.html http://www.bikiniscience.com/chronology/1980-1985_SS/PZ8201_S/PZ8201.html] ]

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.

Music career

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 which she performed with Jackson in the movie "Voyage of the Rock Aliens" in which Zadora played a lead role. (In Germany, this song was a #1 hit for four weeks, and in France it also was a major hit.) She released "Pia & Phil", an album of standards with the London Philharmonic Orchestra 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: The Final Insult", 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"; the joke is taken from the book "Solomon Gursky Was Here" by the Canadian author Mordechai Richler. The story was also famously repeated by Bea Arthur on her "On Broadway: Just Between Friends" tour and album. [ [http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/zadora.asp http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/zadora.asp] ]

Personal life

Zadora gained notoriety when she and Riklis bought the Beverly Hills landmark mansion Pickfair in January 1988 from Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss for nearly $7 million. They eventually demolished most of the structures (keeping the guest houses), because termites and the ravages of time had made reconstruction or repairs difficult. [ [http://www.stomptokyo.com/pia/pia-bio.html Pia Biography website] ] 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. Pia remained at PickFair until sometime in late 2005 or early 2006 when she sold the mansion to Korean-born businessman Corry Hong for $17,650,000. [ [http://realestalker.blogspot.com/2008/09/pickfair-hits-market-at-high-price.html Realestalker: Pickfair Hits Market] ]

Zadora's second husband was writer-director Jonathan Kaufer. They were married from 27 August 1995 to 30 November 2001. [ [http://www.famoushookups.com/site/relationship_detail.php?relid=7965&celebid=9751&name=Pia_Zadora Pia Zadora's and Jonathan Kaufer's Relationship History on Famous Hookups.com] ]

Zadora's three children are Kady (named after Zadora's film character in "Butterfly" and later inspired the call letter for KADY-TV/Oxnard, California after Riklis acquired it in 1988), Kristofer Barzie, and Jordan Maxwell.

Zadora is an active contributor to both Republican and Democratic political candidates. [ [http://www.newsmeat.com/celebrity_political_donations/Pia_Zadora.php NEWSMEAT ▷ Pia Zadora's Federal Campaign Contribution Report ] ]

Filmography

* "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" (1964)
* "Butterfly" (1982)
* "Fake-Out" aka "Nevada Heat" (1982)
* "The Lonely Lady" (1983)
* "Voyage of the Rock Aliens" (1987)
* "Hairspray" (1988)
* "Troop Beverly Hills" (1989)
* "Feel the Motion"
* "" (1994)

Television

* "Pajama Tops" (1984)
* "Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme" (1990) (played Little Miss Muffet)
* "Frasier" (1 episode, 1999)

Discography

Albums

*1982: "Pia"
*1983: "Pia & Phil"
*1986: "I Am What I Am"
*1988: "When the Lights Go Out"
*1989: "Pia Z"

Awards and nominations

Golden Globe Awards

*Won: New Star of the Year, "Butterfly" (1981)

Golden Raspberry Awards

*Won: Worst New Star, "Butterfly" (1983)
*Won: Worst Actress, "Butterfly" (1983)
*Nominated: Worst Supporting Actress, Fake-Out (1983)
*Won: Worst Actress, "The Lonely Lady" (1984)
*Won: Worst Actress, Voyage Of the Rock Aliens (1989)
*Won: Worst New Star of the Decade, "Butterfly" and "The Lonely Lady" (1990)
*Nominated: Worst Actress of the Decade, "Butterfly" and "The Lonely Lady" (1990)
*Nominated: Worst Actress of the Century, "Voyage of the Rock Aliens", "Butterfly", and "The Lonely Lady" (2000)

Golden Apple Award

*Won: Sour Apple (1982)

=ShoWest Award=

*Won: Young Star of the Year (1982)

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0001871|name=Pia Zadora
*ibdb name|id=88293|name=Pia Zadora
*amg name|id=2:78354|name=Pia Zadora
*tv.com person|36935|Pia Zadora

Persondata
NAME= Zadora, Pia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Schipani, Pia Alfreda
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actress, singer
DATE OF BIRTH= May 4, 1954
PLACE OF BIRTH= Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=