In 1960, Anita Ekberg was at the height of her fame, having starred in Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita.
This was when tabloid culture was rapidly developing, leading to frequent confrontations between actors and paparazzi.
One in night in Rome, Ekberg took a stand. She shot the paparazzi with a bow and arrow.
In 1960, Swedish actor Anita Ekberg made international headlines for an extraordinary confrontation with photographers outside her home in Rome. The star of Federico Fellini’s La Dolce Vita, frustrated by relentless press attention, reportedly fired arrows at a group of paparazzi who had followed her across the city.
Ekberg, already a Hollywood icon by the late 1950s, had appeared alongside major names including John Wayne, Audrey Hepburn, Lauren Bacall, Jerry Lewis, and Frank Sinatra. Her performance as Sylvia in La Dolce Vita brought her global fame: and with it, a level of media scrutiny only a few actors had experienced.
Born in Sweden in 1931, Ekberg began her career as a model and was crowned Miss Sweden at age 20. Her Hollywood breakthrough came after she signed with John Wayne’s production company and went on to act in films such as War and Peace, 4 for Texas, Blood Alley, and Back from Eternity. But it was her portrayal of Sylvia in La Dolce Vita that defined her public image and elevated her to global stardom. The success of the film also magnified her status as a paparazzi target, leading to the infamous bow-and-arrow episode that year.
That fame reached its breaking point one night in Rome. After visiting several nightclubs with Italian film producer Guido Giambartolomeo, Ekberg returned to her villa unaware that photographers were waiting nearby. Among them was Felice Quinto, known in the Italian press as “The King of the Paparazzi” and partly said to have inspired the character Paparazzo in Fellini’s film.
That night, Quinto and a photographer had followed Ekberg and Giambartolomeo from her villa to several nightspots along Rome’s Via Veneto and back. They lay in wait, and snapped a couple of photos as the couple were entering the house. “We were getting on our motorbikes to leave, when Anita came running out of the house with a bow and arrow in her hand,” Quinto later recalled to The Los Angeles Times.
The actress had recently trained in archery for her role in The Mongols, and that night she put her practice to use. According to Quinto’s account, Ekberg demanded the recording and then opened fire. “She shouted, ‘Give me those pictures!’ and let fly with the arrows,” he said. One arrow struck him in the left forearm, while another photographer was hit twice in the back. Reports described her wearing a clinging black dress and no shoes on the cold Roman night.
Despite the violence of the confrontation, there were no lasting legal repercussions. Both Ekberg and the photographers returned to work soon after, and the episode became a fixture of celebrity folklore, a symbol of the growing tension between stars and the press in an era when tabloid culture was rapidly expanding. [Rh/Eth/DS]