Isabella Fiorella Elettra Giovanna Rossellini was born in Rome on June 18, 1952. The cinematic equivalent of royalty, she is the daughter of screen legend Ingrid Bergman and master director Roberto Rossellini. Isabella has a fraternal twin sister, Ingrid Aborne, and an elder brother, Roberto; she also has a half-sister, Pia Lindstrom.

Growing up, Isabella had serious health problems. She suffered from scoliosis (progressive curvature of the spine), which necessitated surgery to correct the problem when she was 13. Her recovery took more than a year, as she was bedridden in a body cast.

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Isabella's stunning good looks were apparent soon after, but she didn't seem eager to follow in the footsteps of her famous film parents -- at least not yet. Following a stint as a TV journalist in Europe, Isabella turned to modeling, a career in which she would be successful for decades to come. Her most famous job was as the spokeswoman and main model for Lancome cosmetics.

While her modeling career was in full swing, Isabella inadvertently found herself becoming a movie star like her mother Ingrid Bergman. At first, she appeared opposite her mother and Liza Minnelli in A Matter of Time (1976), but she went on to appear in other Italian films, such as 1979's Il Prato (a.k.a. The Meadow) and 1981's Il Pap'occhio (a.k.a. In the Pope's Eyes).

Fittingly, Isabella married director Martin Scorsese in 1979; but the marriage didn't work out, and they were divorced in 1983.

Isabella's second career as an actress took off in the mid-1980s. She appeared in David Lynch's acclaimed film Blue Velvet, which was a risk to her Lancome job due to the film's strong and risqué sexual content. But the move paid off spectacularly: Isabella garnered much praise, and even an Independent Spirit Award as Best Female Lead, while her profile increased dramatically.

She's had an impressive career from then on. Her many credits include Wild at Heart (1990), Death Becomes Her (1992), Fearless (1993), Wyatt Earp (1994), Immortal Beloved (1994), Big Night (1996), the made-for-TV movies The Odyssey (1997) and Merlin (1998), The Imposters (1998), Roger Dodger (2002), Empire (2002), and The Saddest Music in the World (2003).

On television, she has appeared on Tales from the Crypt, Friends (as herself), and Chicago Hope (the role earned her an Emmy nomination), and she even lent her voice to The Simpsons; most recently, she's been cast as Katya Derevko, Sydney Bristow's (played by Jennifer Garner) aunt on Alias.

Throughout this time, Isabella also gained notoriety for her glamorous (if unstable) personal life. In addition to Martin Scorsese, Isabella also married and divorced model Jonathan Wiedemann, with whom she had a daughter, Elettra-Ingrid. Isabella also has an adopted son, Roberto.

Her other famous paramours have included David Lynch, whom Isabella dated through the late 1980s, and Gary Oldman, to whom she was allegedly engaged in 1994, but the two split up. Still single, Isabella reportedly likes it that way.

These days, Isabella still does some modeling, but she is more focused on her film career. She appears in three movies in 2004 -- The Tulse Luper Suitcases, Part 2: Vaux to the Sea, King of the Corner and Heights -- as well as a TV miniseries called Earthsea.

Another project that has come to fruition is Isabella's line of cosmetics and fragrances with the Lancaster group, "Isabella" and "My Manifesto."

Credit: askmen.com