Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi
Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi was an Italian-American aristocrat best known as the paternal grandmother of the actress and model Brooke Shields.Family
Torlonia was born in Rome, at Palazzo Núñez-Torlonia, the youngest daughter of Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince of Civitella-Cesi and his American wife, Mary Elsie Moore, a daughter of Charles Arthur Moore, a shipping broker and hardware manufacturer from Connecticut. The Torlonia family gained its fortune in the administration of Vatican finances.
She had three siblings:
Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi was married twice, her husbands being:
- Francis Xavier Shields, the American amateur tennis player. They married on 13 June 1940, in North Conway, New Hampshire, and divorced in 1950. The Shieldses had two children: a son, Francis Alexander Shields and a daughter, Marina Shields.
- Edward W. Slater, an architect and partner in Slater Chiat, whom she married on 29 December 1950. They had one son, Edward Torlonia Slater,.
Death
Marina Slater died on 15 September 1960, in an automobile accident in Piacenza, Italy, shortly after leaving the wedding of her nephew Marco Torlonia, 6th Prince of Civitella-Cesi, with princess Orsetta Caracciolo, niece of film director Luchino Visconti. Along with Marina, Duke Raffaele Canevaro of Galluzo, and the Countess Eleanor Terry died in the accident.Ancestry
