Director Robert Wise needed an actress to play the title role in his historical epic Helen of Troy (1956), and Elizabeth Taylor and Ava Gardner just weren't sexy enough. Instead, he chose Italian beauty Rossana Podestà--and not for her oral skills, either. In fact, Rossana didn't speak English and had to learn her lines phonetically. Nobody cared, though, since Rossana was well established as an international actress. Besides, her blonde Helen erected plenty of Trojan horses in the pants of male moviegoers. Rossana spent the rest of her career in Italy, though, where she later went skinternational in Le Ore nude (1964) and got heteros erect in Homo Eroticus (1971). The Libyan-born beauty didn't retire from the screen until 1985, but she still went out as a legendary MILF in films such as Segreti segreti (1985).