Pia Zadora

Pia Zadora, born Pia Alfreda Schipani on May 4, 1954, in Hoboken, New Jersey, is an American actress and singer whose career has spanned Broadway, film, and recorded music. Her father, Alphonse Schipani, was an Italian-American violinist, and her mother, Saturnina Schipani, née Zadorowski, was a Polish-American wardrobe supervisor who worked for Broadway productions, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City Opera. Zadora adopted a portion of her mother's maiden name as her stage name.

Her Broadway career began in 1961 and extended through 1992. As a child actress, she appeared alongside Tallulah Bankhead in the play Midgie Purvis and took on the role of Bielke, the youngest sister, in the Broadway production of Fiddler on the Roof, which ran from 1964 to 1966. She later appeared in the musical Henry, Sweet Henry, as well as Applause and Crazy for You. Her first film role came at age nine, when she portrayed Girmar, a young Martian girl, in the 1964 science fiction film Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.

Zadora came to widespread public attention in 1981 following her starring role in Butterfly, a film adaptation of James M. Cain's novel whose plot involved father-daughter incest, in which she appeared alongside Stacy Keach and Orson Welles. The film's score included Zadora performing the song "It's Wrong for Me to Love You." She received the Golden Globe Award as Best New Star of the Year for the performance, though the award drew controversy amid allegations that her husband, businessman Meshulam Riklis, had funded a promotional campaign on her behalf that included billboard advertising on Sunset Boulevard, a Playboy appearance, and entertainment of Golden Globe voters. Simultaneously, she received the Golden Raspberry Awards for both Worst Actress and Worst New Star for the same role. The following year she starred in Fake-Out, a comedy co-starring Telly Savalas and Desi Arnaz Jr., and in 1983 appeared in The Lonely Lady, based on a Harold Robbins novel, for which she received a second Razzie for Worst Actress. On the basis of multiple Razzie nominations, she was named Worst New Star of the Decade for the 1980s and received a nomination for Worst Actress of the Century at the 20th Golden Raspberry Awards in 2000. In 1985, she starred in the musical comedy Voyage of the Rock Aliens, and in 1988 appeared as a beatnik in John Waters's film Hairspray. A cameo in Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult followed in 1994, during which she performed the Steve Allen–penned "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" in a parody of an Academy Awards musical number.

Alongside her film work, Zadora pursued a recording career throughout the 1980s. Her cover of "The Clapping Song," recorded for The Lonely Lady in 1983, reached the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100, her only entry at that chart level. In 1984 she recorded a duet with Jermaine Jackson, "When the Rain Begins to Fall," from Voyage of the Rock Aliens. She received a Grammy nomination in 1985 for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the song "Rock It Out," losing to Tina Turner's "Better Be Good to Me." That same year she released Pia & Phil, an album of standards recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by I Am What I Am in 1986. Subsequent albums included When the Lights Go Out, produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis and released only in Europe in 1988; Pia Z, produced by Narada Michael Walden in 1989; and the standards collections Pia Today! and Only for Romantics. A three-disc compilation, Pia—The Platinum Collection, was released in 1993 and sold in the United States through infomercials.

Zadora married Riklis on September 18, 1977; he was 30 years her senior. The couple had two children together. In January 1988 they purchased the Beverly Hills estate Pickfair Manor from Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss for nearly seven million dollars. The property, once the shared home of Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, was subsequently demolished and replaced with a new 25,000-square-foot residence. Zadora and Riklis divorced in 1993, and she sold the property in late 2005 or early 2006 to Korean businessman Corry Hong for 17.65 million dollars. Her second marriage, to writer-director Jonathan Kaufer, lasted from August 1995 to November 2001; they had one child together.

In 2011, Zadora mounted a cabaret show titled Pia Zadora: Back Again, and Standing Tall, performing at venues including the Eissey Campus Theatre in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the Kaye Auditorium in Boca Raton, and The Rrazz Room in San Francisco. In 2012 she performed with the Desert Symphony Orchestra at the McCallum Theatre in Palm Desert, California. Since 2013, Zadora has hosted and performed Pia's Place at Piero's Italian Cuisine in Las Vegas.