Pia Zadora

Pia Zadora (born May 4, 1954) is an American actress and singer.

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Born Pia Alfreda Schipani to an Italian-American family in Hoboken, New Jersey, she took her mother's maiden name as her stage name. Her first appearance was in 1964's infamous Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, as Girmar, a young Martian girl. She won a Golden Globe as 1982's "Most Promising New Star," but also won "Worst New Star" in the 1982 Golden Raspberry Awards.

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Her movie career has been a series of lows, with no hits, and with further Golden Raspberries to her credit, including "Worst New Star of the Decade" in the 1989 Golden Raspberry Awards.

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She has attained some success as a singer, and has had several hit singles throughout the world. In 1982, she received a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance. Her cover version of the Shirley Ellis hit, "The Clapping Song", reached the U.S. Top 40 in 1983, and she had a minor hit with a duet with Jermaine Jackson titled "When The Rain Begins To Fall" in 1984. (In Germany, this song was a number 1 hit for four weeks.) She released Pia & Phil, an album of standards with the London Philharmonic 1987.

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She now lives with her children (from two failed marriages) in wealthy retirement, thanks to ex-husband Meshulam Riklis, a wealthy Israeli business man and the owner of McCrory's. Zadora gained notoriety when she and Riklis bought the Beverly Hills landmark mansion Pickfair in January of 1988 and later demolished it. The mansion, former home of early movie stars Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, was one of Beverly Hills' most famous privately owned properties, and its destruction gained Zadora intense criticism.

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May 4: May 4 is the 124th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (125th in leap years). There are 241 days remaining....

1954: 1954 was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar....

American: :This page disambiguates the many uses of American. For an article about those various uses, please see Use of the word American....

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