Lory Del Santo

Loredana "Lory" Del Santo (born 28 September 1958) is an Italian actress.

Lory Del Santo
Lory Del Santo in 2007 in Milan
Born (1958-09-28) 28 September 1958
Povegliano Veronese, Veneto, Italy
OccupationActress, model, television celebrity
Years active1975–present
ChildrenConor Loren Clapton (born 21 August 1986; died 20 March 1991)
Devin Del Santo (born Devin Arnold Sardi on 23 August 1991, he chose to change the surname with the maternal one as soon as he has come of age)
Loren Del Santo (born June 1999; died August 2018 in USA)

Early life

Lory Del Santo was born in Povegliano Veronese, near Verona, into an indigent family. She is the eldest daughter of then 22-year-old Antonio Dal Santo and Clorinda. Because of low temperatures and other factors, Del Santo was born in a stable. When she was three, her father died in a car accident. She grew up with her mother and her sister, three years younger. They lived in the countryside and then moved to Verona.

Biography

Del Santo started her TV career at sixteen as a valletta in the 1975 edition of Festivalbar,[1] the first edition that took place at the Verona Arena, which became the permanent venue for the final evening of the music festival and for the most important live concerts.[2] 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. She worked as a model, fashion photographer, and entrepreneur and studied acting. In the late 1970s she had her first film roles and took part in 20 films over 6 years, some of which sexy comedy films and was directed, among others, by Dino Risi, Adriano Celentano, Massimo Troisi.

In 1980 she entered 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).[1] In the second half of the 1980s, she set aside her career in the entertainment industry to devote herself to her private life. However, 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 theater 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)[3] and for the death of their son, Conor Loren. While he was still married to Pattie Boyd, Clapton embarked on a relationship with the barely 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.[4] 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 by 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 triumphed with 75% of the votes, officially marking her return to TV. In the following years 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 doesn't appreciate biographies and autobiographies, so she found a 'compromise' and wrote a particular book that she calls an "autobiography of my thoughts" or a very long preface, with the title Piacere è una sfida; neither Eric Clapton nor their son, being very personal matters, are mentioned in it.[5] During her entire career she has chosen to never 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.[6]

Personal life

In her book, Del Santo states to have had an affair with George Harrison in December 1991 in Hiroshima, shortly after the death of her (and Clapton's) son. She has had other children, Devin and Loren, whom she raised alone as a single mother.[5] Since the first moments of notoriety in 1981, she has always declared herself against the bond of marriage, and she has never married.[7]

References
  1. "Lory Del Santo. La biografia". Biografieonline. 14 June 2017.
  2. "45 mania - Editoriale del 29 Agosto 2015". www.45mania.it.
  3. "Clapton's ex reveals lost love song". The Times. 9 July 2006.
  4. "Eric Clapton's Son Killed in a 49-Story Fall". 21 March 1991 – via NYTimes.com.
  5. Bruno Ventavoli (13 August 2007). "La vendetta sexy della perfida Lory". La Stampa. Archived from the original on 16 April 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2012.
  6. Fornaciari, Zucchero (8 November 2011). Il suono della domenica. Edizioni Mondadori. ISBN 9788852021503 – via Google Books.
  7. https://www.novella2000.it/la-del-santo-contro-ogni-matrimonio/
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