Feature: Agnelli, Icon of Italian Industry and Style

Giovanni Agnelli was the king of Italian industry who turned the family car company Fiat into a global industrial powerhouse, only to see its fortunes fade as his own health declined.

A symbol of grace and elegance in a nation which prides itself on both, Agnelli died on Friday aged 81 after battling for months with prostate cancer.

From his days as a tank commander in World War Two to his dominance of the business world, Agnelli led from the front and his death brings to a close one of the most fabled chapters in Italy's post-war history.

Son of a princess and married to another, he took over the Fiat chairmanship in 1966 at the age of 45 and steered the company through years of crisis to build a corporation which at one time had a value equal to a 20th of Italy's entire economy.

The group stretched into most aspects of Italian life, with interests ranging from cars to electricity, from newspapers to telecoms. The Agnellis also headed the mighty Juventus football club and Formula One champions Ferrari.

As Fiat plunged back into crisis in 2002, ill-health forced Agnelli to relinquish his grip on the company and in May he missed his first Fiat shareholders' meeting in almost 60 years as he flew to New York for treatment of his cancer.

Treated Like Royalty

In the absence of the Savoys, exiled from Italy for their Fascist sympathies at the end of World War Two, the Agnellis under Gianni were the closest Italy came to a royal family.

A racing car driver in his youth and a fixture on the Italian Riviera in the 50s and 60s, Agnelli had a sharp mind for business, running the Fiat motor corporation founded by his grandfather in 1899 with astuteness, guiding it through more than one downturn towards soaring profits in the mid-1990s.

He was appointed a life senator in 1991 for his part in building the nation's wealth and for acting as an anchor in its turbulent politics. He was held in such high esteem that he was often referred to as simply "l'avvocato" -- the lawyer.

At the occasional meetings he attended in his later years, whether a gathering of Fiat shareholders, an assembly of financial brains or a conference of diplomatic heavyweights, Agnelli was sought out for his guidance and opinions.

Not tall, but standing straight and still, a silver-topped cane in one hand and his thick white hair swept back, he would listen carefully to the battery of queries before providing nuanced, wry and often quick-witted responses.

"I like the wind because you can't buy it," he was once credited with saying.

As Fiat enjoyed success on the business front and branched out into other industries like energy and telecoms, Agnelli kept a hawkish eye on the company but also indulged his love of sports, financing several leading teams.

Juventus soccer club became one of the most successful in Europe, and Ferrari, with hero Michael Schumacher at the wheel, won the Formula One constructor's title four years running. His sleek yacht "Stealth" won Britain's coveted Fastnet Race.

But on the personal front there was often tragedy.

His father Edoardo died in a plane crash in 1935, his mother in a car accident three years later and in 1997 his nephew Giovanni Alberto Agnelli, who was being groomed to take over the family business, died of cancer at the age of 33.

In November 2000, Agnelli's own son Edoardo, who never came to terms with the huge weight of his family ancestry, committed suicide by leaping from a viaduct.

Glitz and Industry

Giovanni Agnelli (his first name was always shortened to Gianni) was born on March 12, 1921 near Turin, Italy's northern industrial heartland and home to many of the nation's most powerful businesses.

One of seven children born to Virginia Bourbon del Monte, princess of San Faustino, he had a strict upbringing under a British governess before being sent to the elite Pinerolo cavalry school, also attended by his father and grandfather.

He was a tank commander in Mussolini's army during World War Two, serving on the Russian and African fronts, before switching sides following the fall of Italian fascism and assisting in the allied liberation. He was awarded a cross for valour.

At the end of the war, in his mid-20s, he joined Fiat as vice-chairman. But running the family business wasn't for him at such an age and instead he spent his time swanning around the world, a rich young blade leading a glitzy, high-flying life.

Often snapped by paparazzi in the company of glamorous women including "La Dolce Vita" star Anita Ekberg, Pamela Churchill Harriman and Rita Hayworth -- he was also a close friend of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. He eventually married Marella Caracciolo di Castagneto, a beautiful Neapolitan princess.

His high-profile gallivanting made him an icon at home, with even his eccentric fashion fads closely imitated. If he appeared in public with his tie outside his jersey or his wristwatch over his shirt cuff, fashion-conscious young Italians followed suit.

But after two decades of dilettantism, he was ready for work and in the end it was his track record of business success which established him as a major player -- some would say the player -- in Italian industrial, financial and political circles.

A Head For Business

He became Fiat managing director in 1963, and chairman in 1966, a post he filled for 30 years, steering the company through labour unrest, terrorist attacks, the oil crisis, and not one but two turnarounds, transforming it briefly into one of the world's most modern and profitable auto groups.

Under Agnelli Fiat bought high-end Italian carmakers Lancia, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and Ferrari and diversified widely, moving into biotechnology, aerospace, utilities and telecommunications.

Fiat soared in the late 1990s and celebrated its centennial in 1999, but in the past year it has withered. Outdated models and inadequate investment meant the core car unit shed market share, forcing the Fiat stock price down to nine-year lows.

In a cruel irony, the share price rose on frequent rumours of Agnelli's death as punters bet that with his passing the company might more quickly sell off the car division, one Agnelli guarded as the heart of his grandfather's company.

He is survived by his wife and a daughter Margherita.