Lory Del Santo

Lory Del Santo
Del Santo in 2007 in Milan
Born	Loredana Del Santo (1958-09-28) 28 September 1958 Povegliano Veronese, Veneto, Italy
Occupation	Television personality actress producer
Years active	1975–present
Children	3

Loredana "Lory" Del Santo (born 28 September 1958) is an Italian television personality and actress, now retired.

Early life

Lory Del Santo was born Loredana Del Santo on 28 September 1958, in Povegliano Veronese, a comune in the Province of Verona, in the Italian region Veneto. She was the first daughter of young parents, father Antonio Dal Santo and mother Clorinda, an indigent family. Because of the poverty, Del Santo's actual place of birth was a stable. Her father died in a car accident when she was age 3, so she grew up with her mother and a younger sister. They first lived in the countryside and then moved to Verona.

Biography

Del Santo began her exposure to entertainment at sixteen when she served as a valletta (assistant) in the 1975 edition of Festivalbar, which took place for the first time, that year, at the Verona Arena. (As of this date, that arena continues as the permanent venue for the final evening of the music festival, and for the most important live concerts.) After graduating from high school, she left Verona for Rome and Milan alone (without her mother's consent), to attempt a career in film and fashion.

In that period, Del Santo worked as a model, fashion photographer, and entrepreneur, and studied acting. She had her first film role, and then by the late 1970s had taken part in 20 films over six years—directed, among others, by Dino Risi, Adriano Celentano, and Massimo Troisi. Some of these films were in the Commedia sexy all'italiana genre. In 1980, Del Santo was the contestant and representative from the nation of Italy, at the Miss Universe competition.

In the early-1980s Del Santo became popular thanks to her participation in successful TV shows such as Renzo Arbore's Tagli, ritagli e frattaglie (1981) and Antonio Ricci's Drive In (1983-1988). In the second half of the 1980s, she set aside her career in the entertainment industry to devote herself to her private life.

In 1989 and 1990 she went on tour as the protagonist for a theatrical show alongside Walter Chiari. In the Autumn of 1991 she was requested for another theatre tour, but gave up for personal reasons.

Del Santo was a focus of gossip columns in UK mainly for her relationship with Eric Clapton (who dedicated the song "Lady of Verona" to her) and for the death of their son, Conor Loren. While he was still married to Pattie Boyd, Clapton embarked on a relationship with the twenty-seven year old Del Santo and fathered Conor, who was born on 21 August 1986. Conor died on 20 March 1991, at the age of four and a half, when he fell out of an open window on the 53rd floor of a Manhattan apartment building, the Galleria. The window, which was about 4 ft by 6 ft tall, had been opened by a building cleaner. The tragedy took place in the middle of an about 20-day stay in New York by Lory and Conor, who was looked after also by a babysitter. The death of their son was the inspiration for Clapton's songs, "Tears in Heaven", "Circus" and "My Father's Eyes".

After a long absence, she returned to television in 2005, participating in the third season of L'isola dei famosi. During this show, she received such high approval from the public that it aroused the interest of even the hardest detractors of this television genre; in the last episode she received 75% of the votes. In years following, she took part in others Italian reality shows, TV shows, and radio broadcasts.

In 2006 a publishing house asked her to write an autobiography, but she had stated that she doesn't appreciate biographies and autobiographies, so she found a compromise and wrote a particular book that she calls an "autobiography of my thoughts", with the title Piacere è una sfida; neither Eric Clapton nor their son are mentioned in it, being very personal matters. During her entire career, she has chosen never to be accompanied by an agent or other specific figures, preferring total self-determination.

The Italian singer Zucchero wrote in his autobiography about how Lory Del Santo had the idea to introduce him to Clapton, inviting the Italian singer for dinner with the couple. From this meeting, an artistic collaboration and a long friendship between the two musicians was born.

Personal life

In her book, Del Santo states that she had an affair with George Harrison in December 1991 in Hiroshima, shortly after the death of her (and Clapton's) son. She has two other children, Devin and Loren, whom she raised alone as a single mother. Since the first moments of notoriety in 1981, she has always declared herself against the bond of marriage, and she has never married.

Her son, Loren Del Santo, took his own life in 2018 at just 19 years old, after having long suffered from a psychiatric illness called anhedonia, a disease that prevents those affected from experiencing pleasure, feelings or emotions of any kind. For years he had lived in the United States, in Miami, where he studied at Miami Beach High School. Born in 1999, Loren was the youngest of her children.

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1977	Ecco noi per esempio	Girl at disco	Cameo appearance
1978	Where Are You Going on Holiday?	Luisa	Segment: "Sarò tutta per te"
1978	Geppo il folle	Student	Cameo appearance
1979	Dear Father	Party guest	Cameo appearance
1979	Gardenia	Laura
1979	Where Can You Go Without the Little Vice?	Irma
1979	Pensione amore servizio completo	Lucy
1979	Saturday, Sunday and Friday	Baby	Segment: "Saturday"
1979	The Great Alligator River	Jane
1979	The Finzi Detective Agency	Pierpaola Moser
1979	A Dangerous Toy	Girl at restaurant	Cameo appearance
1980	I'm Photogenic	Loredana
1980	Desideria: La vita interiore	Naisse
1980	Sunday Lovers	Lory	Segment: "Armando's Notebook"
1981	L'onorevole con l'amante sotto il letto	Waitress
1981	Bollenti spiriti	Lilly
1982	W la foca	Andrea
1982	La gorilla	Ruby
1983	"FF.SS." - Cioè: "...che mi hai portato a fare sopra a Posillipo se non mi vuoi più bene?"	Herself	Cameo appearance
1985	La donna giusta	Woman in Rome	Cameo appearance
2006	Vita Smeralda	Herself	Cameo appearance

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	Festivalbar 1975	Herself - Co-host	Annual music festival
1980	Miss Universe 1980	Herself - Contestant	Annual beauty contest
1981	Tagli, ritagli e frattaglie	Herself - Co-host	Variety show
1982	Morto Troisi, viva Troisi!	Herself	Television film
1983–1988	Drive In	Various characters	Main cast
2000–2001, 2008	Ciao Darwin	Herself - Team member	Game show (seasons 3, 5)
2005	L'Isola dei Famosi	Herself - Contestant	Reality show (season 3) – Winner
2006	Saturday Night Live from Milano	Herself - Guest host	Variety show (season 1)
2009	La Fattoria	Herself - Contestant	Reality show (season 4)
2010–2011	Missione seduzione	Herself - Host	Reality show, also creator
2014–present	Pomeriggio Cinque	Herself - Recurring guest	Talk show (seasons 7–present)
2016	Pechino Express	Herself - Contestant	Reality show (season 5)
2017–2021	Domenica Live	Herself - Recurring guest	Talk show (seasons 6–9)
2018	Grande Fratello VIP	Herself - Contestant	Reality show (season 3)
2022	Back to School	Herself - Contestant	Reality show (season 1)
2022	L'Isola dei Famosi	Herself - Contestant	Reality show (season 16)

As a director

Year	Title	Notes
2013	The Night Club - Osare per credere	Short film
2014–2017	The Lady	Web series (also creator, screenwriter and producer)

External links

• Lory Del Santo at IMDb