La Dolce Vita Actress Anita Ekberg Dies At 83

Anita Ekberg, the Swedish actress who shot to film immortality wading into Rome's Trevi fountain in La Dolce Vita, has died aged 83.

She passed away at a clinic near the Italian capital on Sunday, her lawyer said.

Ekberg, who had been ill for two years, was reported in 2011 to be almost penniless.

Her lawyer, Patrizia Ubaldi, said the actress had lived on a low retirement income, but still owned a large villa south of the capital.

Ekberg's funeral will be held at a Lutheran church in Rome this week.

Her body will be cremated and her ashes sent to Sweden, her lawyer said.

The harbour master's daughter, who was born in 1931 in Malmo, found her way to stardom after she was crowned Miss Sweden aged 20.

She went to the United States to compete in Miss Universe. Although she didn't capture the title, her 39-22-37 measurements caught the eye of a modelling scout.

Ekberg went to Hollywood where she began to take on small acting roles.

She made more than 50 feature films over an acting career that spanned five decades.

But it was her role as the decadent American actress Sylvia in Federico Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita (The Sweet Life), about high society in Rome, that elevated her to greatness.

The scene of her in the Trevi fountain in a strapless velvet black dress, beckoning her gossip journalist love interest to join her, is among the most famous in film history.

"I was freezing to death," Ekberg later told Swedish television, recalling that fountain shoot.

"I thought that my legs were becoming icicles.

"The water in the fountain comes from the mountains and the film was made in January."

The Swede starred alongside some of the most famous actors of her time, including Audrey Hepburn, Henry Fonda, Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.

Sinatra asked her to marry him, she once said.

Hollywood called her The Iceberg, a reference to her Scandinavian background, but she said it was also because she was blunt.

Despite being Sweden's most famous export, she was often criticised by journalists in her homeland for leaving the country and adopting an American accent.

She married British matinee idol Anthony Steel in 1956, but they divorced four years later.

In 1963 she wed American actor Rik van Nutter, but that marriage also ended in a split.

She had no children, which she said was a regret.