Adoption and Foster Care Biographies - Biography of Adoptive Parent Isabella Rossellini - Actress a
Biography of Isabella Rossellini
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Identity: Adoptive parent, actress, model
Born:June 18, 1952 - Italy
Bio:In 1952, Isabella Fiorella Eleta Giovanna Rossellini was born in Italy, with her twin sister, to
Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini. Her older brother, Roberto Ingmar Rossellini, had been born in 1950. Isabella's parents divorced when she was 4 years old. She, her sister and older brother split their time between parents in France and Italy.
At age 19, Isabella traveled to the United States to study in college. A year later she became a permanent U.S. resident. She briefly taught an Italian language class while in the U.S. After returning to Rome, she worked as a translator, TV journalist and model. In 1976 she took a small role in the movie, "A Matter of Time" with her mother, Ingrid Bergman. This brief acting role was a positive experience and Isbella started acting in European television productions.
In the early 1980's Isabella signed on to work as the "face" for Lancôme cosmetics. This relationship lasted 14 years. Lancôme asked Isabella to retire when she turned 40 years old. She refused and they fired her. Isabella went on to launch her own cosmetic line called Manifesto in 1999.
In 1983 she and her husband, John Wiedeman, had a daughter. Their marriage was short lived.
Isabella's first big American movie was "White Nights" (1985) in which she starred with with Gregory Hines and Mikhail Baryshnikov.In 1994, Isabella adopted an infant boy in Texas as a 42 year old single mother. She decided to name him after her father because, "He was born while I was talking about my dad. That means I have to call him Roberto."
In a 1996 interview, when Isabella was asked about feeling pressured by her mother's movie image of beauty, she replied, "I think that was definitely the reason why I didn't start acting until I was thirty-one. In fact, I became a model, so in a way I was Mother's equal when it came to beauty - or to taking advantage of it, to put it more bluntly. The big thing was being compared to her as an actress. That scared me."
At a New York adoption fair in 1999, she was quoted as saying, "When I was young, I always knew I wanted to be a biological mother and an adoptive mother. When you adopt, you reach out and bring a lot of joy, warmth and love."
Related Resources: | Book: "Some of Me"
a memoir by Isabella Rossellini
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