Pia Zadora

Pia Zadora Bio

Pia Zadora, born Pia Alfreda Schipani on May 4, 1954, in Hoboken, New Jersey, is an American actress and singer. She began performing as a child on Broadway and in regional theater before her 1964 film debut in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Zadora came to national attention in 1981 following her starring role in Butterfly, a critically derided drama that nonetheless earned her a Golden Globe Award as New Star of the Year and, in the same year, the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress and Worst New Star. She later transitioned into a recording artist, releasing multiple albums backed by symphony orchestras, and she earned a Grammy nomination in 1984. Across more than six decades in entertainment, Zadora has built a body of work that includes film, television, cabaret, and live performance in Las Vegas.

Early Life and Background

Pia Zadora was born in Hoboken, New Jersey, into a family with deep roots in the performing arts. Her father, Alphonse Schipani, was an Italian-American violinist, and her mother, Saturnina Schipani (née Zadorowski), was a Polish-American theatrical wardrobe supervisor for Broadway productions, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City Opera. Growing up around stage clothes and rehearsal halls, Zadora absorbed the rhythms of live theater from an early age.

She later adopted part of her mother’s maiden name as her stage name. As a young performer, Zadora appeared alongside Tallulah Bankhead in the Broadway production Midgie Purvis. She then joined the cast of Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway from 1964 to 1966, playing the youngest sister Bielke. These early theater experiences gave her professional training and exposure well before her screen career took off.

Path to Celebrity

Zadora made her film debut at age nine, portraying Girmar, a young Martian girl, in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964). Although the picture has been widely regarded over the decades as one of the worst films ever made, it launched her screen career. Her acting work moved slowly after that, but her stage work as a young headliner at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas kept her in the public eye during the early 1970s.

While touring with a musical production in 1972, Zadora met businessman Meshulam Riklis, who was thirty years her senior. They married on September 18, 1977. Not long after the wedding, she landed a breakthrough as the Dubonnet Girl, appearing in print and television commercials for the apéritif wine whose American distributor Riklis helped finance. The role introduced her to a wider national audience and set the stage for her first major film lead.

Pia Zadora Career

Early Career (1964-1980)

Zadora’s first film role came at age nine in Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964), the only screen credit she would accumulate for years. Between her child roles and her adult comeback, she concentrated on live performance, becoming a marquee headliner at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas through her association with Riklis and entertainer Frank Sinatra. The exposure in Las Vegas helped build the audience that her later film work would need.

She also became a familiar television face as the Dubonnet Girl in commercials during the late 1970s. This period of stage and advertising work kept her active and visible while she waited for the right film opportunity, which finally arrived with Butterfly.

Breakthrough (1981-1985)

Zadora starred opposite Stacy Keach and Orson Welles in the 1982 film adaptation of James M. Cain’s novel Butterfly, a story centered on father-daughter incest. The film featured Zadora singing “It’s Wrong for Me to Love You.” She won that year’s Golden Globe Award for Best New Star of the Year amid controversy, with critics alleging that Riklis had promoted the award through an aggressive campaign that included Sunset Boulevard billboards, a Playboy appearance, and the entertainment of Golden Globe voters. Major critics panned her performance, with The New York Times’ Vincent Canby calling it “spectacularly inept,” and she received the 1982 Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst New Star and Worst Actress.

Zadora next starred in the 1982 B-movie comedy Fake-Out (also called Nevada Heat) with Telly Savalas and Desi Arnaz Jr. In 1983 she took the lead in The Lonely Lady, adapted from a Harold Robbins novel, earning her a 1983 Golden Raspberry for Worst Actress. Across multiple Razzie nominations, she was also named Worst New Star of the Decade for 1980 to 1989 and was nominated as Worst Actress of the 1980s. In 1985 she played the love interest of an extraterrestrial in the musical comedy Voyage of the Rock Aliens, which featured several songs from her 1984 album Let’s Dance Tonight.

Notable Works and Milestones

Among Zadora’s signature screen appearances are Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964), Butterfly (1982), The Lonely Lady (1983), John Waters’ Hairspray (1988), and Naked Gun 33+1/3: The Final Insult (1994). Her recording of “The Clapping Song,” recorded for The Lonely Lady, became her only Top 40 Billboard Hot 100 single, and her 1984 duet with Jermaine Jackson, “When the Rain Begins to Fall,” was a worldwide hit. In 1985 she earned a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance for the song “Rock It Out,” losing to Tina Turner’s “Better Be Good to Me.” She also recorded Pia & Phil (1985), an album of standards with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Pia Zadora Award Nominations

Pia Zadora has received several award nominations across her career. In 1984 and 1985, she received attention for her music, earning a Grammy nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance in 1985. In 2000, she was nominated at the 20th Golden Raspberry Awards as Worst Actress of the Century, ultimately losing to Madonna.

Pia Zadora Awards Won

Zadora has won awards recognizing both her star power and her critical misfires. In 1982 she won the Golden Globe Award for Best New Star of the Year for Butterfly, a victory that drew controversy over how the campaign was financed. That same year she also received the Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst New Star and Worst Actress for the same film, making her one of the rare performers to collect a Golden Globe and a Razzie for the same work in the same year.

Pia Zadora Family

Zadora was born to Alphonse Schipani, an Italian-American violinist, and Saturnina Schipani, a Polish-American theatrical wardrobe supervisor for Broadway productions, the Metropolitan Opera, and the New York City Opera. Her mother, whose maiden name inspired Zadora’s stage surname, worked for years in New York’s major performing arts venues. With her first husband, Meshulam Riklis, Zadora had two children, and with her second husband, writer-director Jonathan Kaufer, she had one child, giving her three children overall.

Personal Life

Zadora married businessman Meshulam Riklis on September 18, 1977; the couple divorced in 1993. She married writer-director Jonathan Kaufer in August 1995, and they divorced in November 2001. In 2005 she married Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detective Michael Jeffries, with whom she divorced in 2024. Zadora lives in Summerlin, Nevada. She has continued to perform, hosting and headlining Pia’s Place at Piero’s Italian Cuisine in Las Vegas since 2013.