Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi

Torlonia was born in Rome, at Palazzo Núñez-Torlonia, the youngest daughter of Marino Torlonia, 4th Prince of Civitella-Cesi^[3] and his American wife, Mary Elsie Moore, a daughter of Charles Arthur Moore, a hardware merchant from Connecticut.^[4][5] The Torlonia family gained its fortune in the administration of Vatican finances.

She had three siblings:

• Donna Princess Olimpia Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (1909–1924)^{[citation needed]}
• Don Alessandro Torlonia, 5th Prince of Civitella-Cesi (1911–1986), the husband of Infanta Beatriz of Spain (1909–2002, daughter of King Alphonso XIII).^[5][6]
• Donna Princess Cristina Torlonia dei Principi di Civitella-Cesi (1913–1974)^[5][6]

In February 1934, Torlonia made her New York City debut.^[7] Torlonia enjoyed going to nightclubs and undertaking Democratic Party-related charity work. In 1934 she led many charity fundraising efforts.^[8] Some of the charity fundraisers she was involved with include the American Auxiliary Hospital in Mougins, France,^[9][10] the Italian Welfare League,^[11] New York City Cancer Institute,^[12][13] the New York Diet Kitchen Association,^[14][15] the Babies Hospital of the City of New York,^[16] Soldiers and Sailors Club of New York,^[17] New York Exchange for Woman's Work,^[18] Woman's Auxiliary of the Osteopathic Clinic of New York,^[19] Goddard Neighborhood Centre,^[20] Children's Village at Dobbs Ferry, New York,^[21] among others.

In 1936 Torlonia was dressed as "wealth" with a tall headdress and two hand maids at one of a nationwide set of birthday celebrations for President Roosevelt.^[22] The following year in 1937 at the Roosevelt Birthday Ball Torlonia was one of a hundred women specially dressed to celebrate the event, she was dressed as "The East", representing the Eastern United States fashion, and in attendance was the President's mother Sara Roosevelt.^[23][24]

Sculptor Marino Marini created a wax portrait of Marina Torlonia in 1935.^[25]

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

• Francis Xavier Shields (1909–1975), the American amateur tennis player.^[26] They married on 13 June 1940, in North Conway, New Hampshire,^[27] and divorced in 1950. The Shieldses had two children: a son, Francis Alexander Shields and a daughter, Marina Shields.
• Edward W. Slater, an architect and partner at architectural firm Slater and Chiat, whom she married on 29 December 1950.^[28][29] They had one son, Edward Torlonia Slater (born 1955).

Torlonia was the paternal grandmother of American actress Brooke Shields, the daughter of her son Francis Alexander Shields.^[30][31]

Torlonia 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, to princess Orsetta Caracciolo, niece of film director Luchino Visconti.^[32] Duke Raffaele Canevaro di Zoagli and his mother-in-law, Eleanor Terry, were also killed in the accident.^[33][34][35]