Gila Golan

Biography

Gila Golan (born 1940) is an Israeli former fashion model and actress.

Born in Krakow, Poland, in 1940, she was adopted by a Roman Catholic family that found her left in a bundle at a train station during the Holocaust. Her adopted family sent her to be educated in a monastery. Arriving in Israel after World War II with the name Zusia Sobetzcki, she became Miriam Goldberg and continued her schooling in an Orthodox girls' boarding school.

After becoming enamoured with fashion and undergoing plastic surgery, she was spotted by an American photographer, and ultimately ended up in the Israeli women's magazine LaIsha. Her new fame launched her to the 1960 national fashion competition, where she won first place and was crowned Miss Israel, though she changed her name to Gila Golan to prevent word getting back to her religiously conservative benefactors. After receiving second place in that year's Miss World competition as Israel's representative, she was sent to the United States to raise funds, and she ended up staying there.

Director Stanley Kramer started her film career with the role of Elsa Lutz in his film Ship of Fools, whence she continued to establish herself in Our Man Flint, Three on a Couch, and The Valley of Gwangi. Golan was married and divorced, remarried and widowed, and finally married a third time, and has several children from her three marriages. In recent years she has returned to religion and now runs an investment business.

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