Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi

Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (22 October 1916 – 15 September 1960) 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 Olimpia Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Chesi (1909–1924)
• Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince of Civitella-Cesi, the husband of Infanta Beatriz of Spain (an aunt of King Juan Carlos I of Spain).
• Donna Cristina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (1913–1974)

Marriages

Donna Marina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi was married twice, her husbands being:

• Francis Xavier Shields (1909–1975), 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 (father of the actress and model Brooke 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 (born 1955),.

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