Gia Scala

Gia Scala
Gia Scala
Born	Giovanna Scoglio 3 March 1934(1934-03-03) Liverpool, England, UK
Died	30 April 1972(1972-04-30) (aged 38) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actress, model
Years active	1955—1969
Spouse	Don Burnett (1959-1970; divorced)

Gia Scala (3 March 1934 – 30 April 1972) was an English-born actress and model of Italian and Irish descent.

Early life

She was born Giovanna Scoglio in Liverpool, England, to a Sicilian father, Pietro Scoglio, and an Irish mother, Eileen Sullivan. She had one sister, Tina Scala, also an actress.

Scala lived in Rome, and moved to the United States at age fourteen where she studied and worked in New York City. She graduated from Bayside High School in Queens, New York. For a time she was undecided on what to do next. She worked in New York as a filing clerk for an insurance company and as a reservation clerk for Scandinavian Airlines.

Career

Scala studied acting at night and made appearances on some radio shows and television quiz shows. At the end of 1954 an agent had her tested for the role of Mary Magdalene in a movie which was to be made called The Gallileans. She did not get the part but was signed to contracts by both Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures in Hollywood. Using the stage name "Gia Scala", she made her motion picture debut in 1955. This came in All That Heaven Allows with Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson.

However, personal problems plagued her. In 1958 she attempted suicide. Later that same year, she became an American citizen. She landed roles in Tip on a Dead Jockey and The Garment Jungle in 1957 and The Tunnel of Love in 1958. The latter featured Richard Widmark and Doris Day. Critics acclaimed her performance as a labor organizer in The Garment Jungle. She received recognition for her performance as "Anna" in the 1961 film The Guns of Navarone, starring Gregory Peck.

She made frequent appearances on American television shows during the 1960s. Shows in which she appeared include Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960–1961), Alfred Hitchcock's The Sign of Satan (1964), Convoy, The Rogues, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Twelve O'Clock High (1965), Tarzan (NBC series) (1967), and It Takes a Thief (1969).

Scala's career began to deteriorate, however, as a result of a growing alcoholism, and she was released eventually from her contract with the studio. Her marriage to actor/stockbroker Don Burnett ended in divorce in 1970.

Later years and death

Having British citizenship because of her birth, she moved to work in film in England but her troubles only escalated. Suffering from severe emotional problems, aggravated by alcohol, she made another unsuccessful suicide attempt before returning to Hollywood.

On the night of 30 April 1972, Scala was found dead in her Hollywood Hills home at 7944 Woodrow Wilson Drive from an overdose of drugs and alcohol. She was 38 years old. Scala's death was later ruled accidental. She is interred in the Holy Cross Cemetery, Culver City.

Selected filmography

• The Price of Fear (1956)
• Four Girls in Town (1957)
• The Big Boodle (1957)
• The Garment Jungle (1957)
• Tip on a Dead Jockey (1957)
• Don't Go Near the Water (1957)
• Ride a Crooked Trail (1958)
• The Two-Headed Spy (1958)
• The Tunnel of Love (1958)
• The Angry Hills (1959)
• Battle of the Coral Sea (1959)
• Wernher von Braun (1960)
• The Guns of Navarone (1961)

External links

• Gia Scala at the Internet Movie Database
• Gia Scala at Find a Grave