Curvaceous and statuesque, Anita Ekberg utilized her natural attributes to win the Miss Sweden contest in 1951. She traveled to the USA to compete in the Miss Universe pageant and remained in America where she first found work as a model. Hollywood eventually beckoned but the studios and filmmakers cast the voluptuous, husky-voiced blonde more for her looks than for her talent in such forgettable films as "Abbott and Costello Go to Mars" (1953) and "Zarak" (1956). Her one real shot at playing a three-dimensional character was in King Vidor's "War and Peace" (1956) but significant follow-up
