Born in Rome to an Italian father and an English mother, Mangano lived in poverty caused by the Second World War. Trained for seven years as a dancer, she was supporting herself as a model.
In 1946, at age 16, Mangano won the "Miss Rome" beauty pageant and through this, she obtained a role in a Mario Costa film. One year later, she became a contestant in the Miss Italia contest. Mangano's earliest connection with filmmaking occurred through her romantic relationship with actor Marcello Mastroianni. This led her to a film contract, though it would take some time for Mangano to ascend to international stardom with her performance in Bitter Rice (Riso Amaro, Giuseppe De Santis, 1949).
Thereafter, she signed a contract with Lux Film, in 1949, and later married Dino De Laurentiis, on the verge of becoming a known producer.Though she never scaled the heights of her contemporaries Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida, Mangano remained a favorite star between the 1950s and 1970s, appearing in Anna (Alberto Lattuada, 1951), The Gold of Naples (L'oro di Napoli, Vittorio De Sica, 1954), Mambo (Robert Rossen, 1955), Theorem (Teorema, Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968), Death in Venice (Morte a Venezia, Luchino Visconti, 1971), and The Scientific Cardplayer (1972).
El Negro Zumbon has been performed by a number of artists over the years including Perez Prado, Xavier Cugat, Abbe Lane, Lolita Garrido, Amalia Rodrigues, and the first being film actress, Silvana Magnano.
El Negro Zumbon was actually born from the 1951 Italian film, Anna. In the movie, Silvana Magnano plays a nun working as a nurse in a hospital. When two former paramours have a shoot-out in the hospital, Magnano's character, Anna, reminisces about her former life as a nightclub performer. As she cares for one of the former lovers, she has second thoughts about her calling but decides to continue her spiritual life.
"The above text is a mushup from AllMusic.com & Wikipedia."
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