Ira Von Furstenberg

Ira von Fürstenberg, who came as close as one can get to having it all as an Italian-born princess descended from Charlemagne, an heiress to the Fiat fortune, a Vogue model, a big-screen ingénue and a globe-trotting bon vivant, died on Feb. 19 2024 at her home in Rome. She was 83. Her son, Hubertus von Hohenlohe, said she died after breaking her ribs and perforating her lungs in a domestic accident. She flaunted both noble lineage and seemingly inexhaustible wealth from her mother, Clara, who was a granddaughter of Giovanni Agnelli, who founded Fiat, and a sister of Gianni Agnelli, the dashing Fiat chief. At 15, she made headlines on both sides of the Atlantic when she married the Spanish-born prince and playboy Alfonso Hohenlohe-Langenburg, affectionately known as the King of Clubs for his work founding the Marbella Club, a haven for stars and socialites, on Spain’s Costa del Sol. They had two sons, Christoph, who died in Thailand in 2006, and Hubertus, a former Olympic skier for Mexico. In 1960, she took up with Francisco Pignatari, known as Baby, a Brazilian industrialist and notorious playboy. The couple married in Reno, Nev., in 1961 and divorced three years later. Virginia Carolina Theresa Pancrazia Galinda von und zu Fürstenberg was born on April 17, 1940, in Rome. Her father, Prince Tassilo Fürstenberg, traced his lineage to the German House of Fürstenberg; her mother was descended from scions of Italian industry. She met the film producer Dino De Laurentiis on a flight in 1966. Mr. De Laurentiis was intrigued by her potential as an actress and soon had her under contract. She went on to make more than two dozen screen appearances into the early 1980s.