Sydne Rome (born March 17, 1946)[1][2] is an American-Italian film actress,[3] who has, with one notable exception, worked exclusively in Europe.[4][5] Her first name is often misspelled Sydney or Sidne.[6][7]

Sydne Rome
Sydne Rome in The Gamecock (1974)
Born (1946-03-17) March 17, 1946 (age 78)
OccupationActress
Spouses
(m. 1973, divorced)
Roberto Bernabei
(m. 1987)

Biography

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Born in Akron, Rome grew up in a Jewish family in Upper Sandusky, Ohio. Her father was president of a plastics corporation in the Akron area.[2] After attending high school in Akron, she went to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Tech to study acting. A subsequent apprenticeship with the Pasadena Playhouse both broadened Rome's acting horizons and, in one notable instance, caught the eye of an agent, resulting in a transatlantic flight for what would ultimately prove an unsuccessful audition for the role of Candy's titular protagonist. Following one additional year of Playhouse honing, Rome began her film career in earnest with the 1969 British spy comedy Some Girls Do.[1] She then appeared in Italian films, often playing the young, seemingly innocent American abroad, and also in Spaghetti Westerns. Subsequently she made forays into German film and television. Since the late 90s she has acted in Italian TV films and series.

At the beginnings of the 1980s, Rome became an icon of the aerobics craze and published workout videos as well as the album Aerobic Fitness Dancing, produced by Frank Farian and recorded in German, Spanish and Italian.[8] As a singer, she recorded the single "Angelo prepotente" (1980) in Italian, English ("For You") and German ("Wozu"). She also recorded a cover version of Marty Balin's hit "Hearts".

In 2009, Rome's face was disfigured in a car crash when her air bag exploded.[9]

In 1973, Rome married Emilio Lari; subsequently, she converted to Catholicism and married the gerontologist Roberto Bernabei.[10][11] She has been living in Rome since the early 1970s. Bernabei and Rome have two grown children.[9]

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ a b Valery, Bernard (March 10, 1974). "Sydne Rome Is Her Name ... Sex Goddess Is Her Game". New York Sunday News. p. L1. Retrieved January 28, 2025. "The latest entry in the field is Sydne Rome, a 27-year-old golden girl from the American Midwest [...] 'After high school in Akron, I went to Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh to study theater. After that, I went to work in the Pasadena Playhouse. We played everything—Shakespeare, Chekhov, Tennessee Williams.' Sydne's first stab at movies was a disappointment. A Hollywood agent sent her to Rome to try out for the title role in "Candy" but she lost out to Swedish actress Ewa Aulin. Sydne returned to Pasadena, and worked there for about a year before returning to Europe and making her first movie- 'Some Girls Do,' a British production filmed in Spain.
  2. ^ a b Mann, Anthony (June 3, 1979). "On the Outskirts of Sydne: Her sultry looks have given actress Sydne Rome a sex-bomb image she prefers to disown; 'You can't stop people thinking about you in sex terms, can you?'". Sunday Telegraph Magazine. pp. 47, 48. Retrieved January 27, 2025. "She was born in Akron, Ohio, on March 17, 1946. [...] Rome's father, who still likes to talk Yiddish, owned a plastics factory in Akron. But she was brought up in neighbouring Upper Sandusky [...] She fled from this environment at the age of 17 and enrolled in the Carnegie Tech school of acting at Pittsburgh University. Her first stage job was at Pasadena Playhouse in California, where she was noticed by an agent who flew her to Rome for a screen test for the title role of Candy, which was ultimately played by Ewa Aulin."
  3. ^ "Sydne Rome". International New York Times. Archived from the original on December 25, 2013. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
  4. ^ O'Connor, Carroll (1998). I Think I'm Outta Here: A Memoir of All My Families. New York: Pocket Books. pp.278–279. ISBN 0-671-01760-8. "Sydne Rome the actress—an American, close friend, who built her career in Europe—and her husband, Dr. Roberto Bernabei, who think of us as their family, welcomed us into their apartment in Via Sabatino."
  5. ^ Malleck, Bonnie (December 9, 1994). "It's a family affair : Burgess, Fox among Rita's friends". The Record. p. 15. ProQuest 275426883. Elsewhere in TV Times changes, tonight's In the Heat of the Night episode (9 p.m. on 4, Cable 15) runs two hours, not one hour as listed. This outing, entitled Who Was Geli Bendl? was directed by Larry Hagman. Sydne Rome guest stars as an actor and former resident of Sparta who returns home to save her younger sister from the clutches of a slimy drug dealer.
  6. ^ Gifford, Denis (2000). British Film Catalogue, Volume 1: Fiction Films, 1895—1994. London: Routledge. p. 783. ISBN 978-1-57958-171-8. "12790, Some Girls Do (93 min) [...] Maurice Denham — Sir Dudley Mortimer; Robert Morley — Miss Mary; Sydney Rome — Flicky" See also:
  7. ^ Soria, Florentino (1990). José María Forqué. Huesca: Festival de Cine de Huesca. p. 134. ISBN 9788477532804. "Sidne Rome y José Carreras en 'Romanza Final (Gayerre)'". See also:
    • Tanet, Chantal (2009). Dictionnaire des Prénoms. Paris : Larousse. p. 589. ISBN 978-2-03-583728-8. "CÉLÉBRITÉS Les Sydney célèbres sont souvent améri¬ cains : le clarinettiste de jazz Sidney Bechet (1897-1959), l’acteur de ci¬ néma Sidney Poitier, les réalisateurs Sydney Pollack et Sidney Lumet, ou encore l’actrice Sidne Rome."
    • "Schauspielerinnen". Cinema. March 1981. p. 10. "Sidne Rome, Looping"
    • "Shoot Ends". Screen International. October 1977. p. 15. ProQuest 963003002. The Jodie Foster film 'Stop Calling Me Baby' has finished shooting in Paris. [...] Sidne Rome and Jean Yanne also star in the film.
    • "Cinerama". Cinema Revista a Consiliului. September 1977. p. 18. "O actriță nemulțumită. Regizorul Luigi Zampa turnează pe platourile romane de la Cinecittă filmul Monstrul. În rolul principal, Sidne Rome (numele european al americancei născută în Ohio, dar lansată pe vechiul continent). Sidne Rome va fi o cintăreali pop și, deși nu este rolul pe care și l-2 visat, e totuşi mulțumită."
    • Strick, Philip (October 1971). "Time, Transplants and Arthur Clarke". Sight and Sound. p. 190. "Comedy at a subtler level was provided by La Ragazza di Latta, an encouraging first film by Marcello Aliprandi, in which the delightful if somewhat over-demonstrative Sidne Rome portrayed the most seductive robot since Brigitte Helm."
  8. ^ "Sydne Rome – Aerobic Fitness Dancing (1983, Gatefold, Vinyl)". Discogs. Retrieved December 19, 2013.
  9. ^ a b "Sydne Rome talks about Today is another day: the accident, the daughters, the loves". Tips for Womens [sic]. November 11, 2020. Archived from the original on November 29, 2020. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
  10. ^ "Nomina del Medico personale del Santo Padre: Roberto Bernabei". Bollettino (Press release). Holy See Press Office. February 24, 2021. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  11. ^ Pentin, Edward (February 24, 2021). "Pope's New Doctor: A Gerontologist Who Sees COVID as Normal Disease". National Catholic Register. Retrieved November 18, 2021. Bernabei, 69, is married to American-Italian film actress and former showgirl, Sydne Rome, a convert to Catholicism...
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