Sophia Loren (born
Sofia Villani Scicolone; September 20, 1934) is an Italian
actress.In 1962, she won the
Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in
Two Women, becoming the first actress to win an
Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance,she won another 21 awards for that role. Loren has won 50 international awards, including two Oscars, five
Golden Globe Awards, a
Grammy Award and a
BAFTA Award. Her other films include
Attila (1954),
The Pride and the Passion (1957),
Houseboat (1958),
El cid (1961),
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963),
Marriage Italian Style (1964),
A Special Day (1977),
Grumpier Old Men (1995), and
Nine (2009).
In 1999, Sophia Loren was listed by the
American Film Institute on
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars as one of 25 American female screen legends of all time. In 2002, she was honored by the
National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) at its annual Anniversary Gala and was inducted into its Italian American Hall of Fame.
Early life
Loren was born in the Clinica Regina Margherita in
Rome, daughter of Romilda Villani (1914–1991) and Riccardo Scicolone, a construction engineer. Scicolone refused to marry Villani, leaving her, a piano teacher and aspiring actress, without support. Loren's parents had another child together, her sister Maria, in 1938. Loren also has two younger half-brothers, Giuliano and Giuseppe, on her father's side. Romilda, Loren, and Maria lived with Loren's grandmother in Pozzuoli, near Naples, to survive.During
World War II, the harbor and munitions plant in Pozzuoli was a frequent bombing target of the Allies. During one raid, as Loren ran to the shelter, she was struck by shrapnel and wounded in the chin. After that, the family moved to Naples, where they were taken in by distant relatives.
After the war, Loren and her family returned to Pozzuoli. Grandmother Luisa opened a pub in their living room, selling homemade cherry liquor. Villani played the piano, Maria sang and Loren waited tables and washed dishes. The place was very popular with the American GIs stationed nearby.
When she was 14 years old, Loren entered a beauty contest in Naples and, while not winning, was selected as one of the finalists. Later she enrolled in acting class and was selected as an extra in
Mervyn LeRoy's 1951 film,
Quo Vadis, launching her career as a motion picture actress. She eventually changed her name to Sophia Loren.
Career
Beginnings
After being credited professionally as
Sofia Lazzaro, she began using her current stage name in 1952's
La Favorita. Her first starring role was in
Aida (1953), for which she received critical acclaim. After playing the lead role in
Two Nights with Cleopatra (1953), her breakthrough role was in
The Gold of Naples (1954), directed by
Vittorio De Sica.
Too Bad She's Bad, also released in 1954, became the first of many films in which Loren co-starred with
Marcello Mastroianni. Over the next three years she acted in many films such as
Scandal in Sorrento (1955) and
Lucky to Be a Woman (1956). In 1957, Loren's star had begun to rise in Hollywood, with the films
Boy on a Dolphin (her U.S. film debut),
Legend of the Lost with
John Wayne, and
The Pride and the Passion in which she starred opposite
Cary Grant and
Frank Sinatra.
International fame
Loren became an international film star with a five-picture contract with
Paramount Pictures in 1958. Among her films at this time were
Desire Under the Elms with
Anthony Perkins, based upon the
Eugene O'Neill play;
Houseboat, a romantic comedy co-starring
Cary Grant; and
George Cukor's
Heller in Pink Tights, in which she appeared as a blonde for the first time.
In 1961, she starred in
Vittorio De Sica's
Two Women, a stark, gritty story of a mother who is raped while trying to protect her daughter in war-torn Italy. Originally cast as the daughter, Loren fought against type and was re-cast as the mother (actress
Eleonora Brown would portray the daughter). Loren's performance earned her many awards, including the
Cannes Film Festival's best performance prize, and an
Academy Award for Best Actress, the first major Academy Award for a non-English-language performance and to an Italian actress.She won 22 international awards for "two women"
Loren is known for her sharp wit and insight. One of her most frequently-quoted sayings is her quip about her famously-voluptuous figure:
"Everything you see, I owe to spaghetti." However, on the December 20, 2009, episode of
CBS News Sunday Morning, Loren denied ever saying the line.
During the 1960s, Loren was one of the most popular actresses in the world, and she continued to make films in both the U.S. and Europe, acting with leading male stars. In 1964, her career reached its zenith when she received $1 million to act in
The Fall of the Roman Empire. In 1965, she received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance in
Marriage Italian-Style.Among Loren's best-known films of this period are
Samuel Bronston's epic production of
El Cid (1961) with
Charlton Heston,
The Millionairess (1960) with
Peter Sellers,
It Started in Naples (1960) with
Clark Gable, Vittorio De Sica's triptych
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963) with Marcello Mastroianni,
Peter Ustinov's
Lady L (1965) with
Paul Newman, the 1966 classic
Arabesque with
Gregory Peck, and
Charlie Chaplin's final film,
A Countess from Hong Kong (1967) with
Marlon Brando.
Loren received four
Golden Globe Awards between 1964 and 1977 as "World Film Favorite - Female."
Mid-career and musical recordingsOnce she became a mother, Loren worked less. Most of her acting during the next two decades was in Italian features. During the 1970s, she appeared in such films as
Lady Liberty (1971) with
Susan Sarandon and the musical
Man of La Mancha (1972) with
Peter O'Toole. She was paired with
Richard Burton in the last De Sica-directed movie,
The Voyage (1974), and a remake of the film
Brief Encounter (1974). In 1976 she starred in
The Cassandra Crossing, a
disaster film featuring such veteran stars as
Richard Harris,
Martin Sheen, and
Ava Gardner. She also co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni in
Ettore Scola's
A Special Day (1977), an Italian film for which she was nominated for several awards. Loren then starred in the Hollywood thrillers
Brass Target (1978), set during World War II, and
Firepower (1979), that had a moderate success. In 1980, Loren portrayed herself, as well as her mother, in a made-for-television
biopic adaptation of her autobiography titled
Sophia Loren: Her Own Story. Actresses Ritza Brown and Chiara Ferrari played Loren at younger ages. In 1981, she became the first female celebrity to launch her own perfume,
Sophia, and a brand of eyewear followed soon thereafter. She made headlines in 1982 when she served an 18-day prison sentence in Italy on
tax evasion charges, a fact that didn't damage her career or popularity. She acted infrequently during the 1980s and turned down starring roles on the TV series
Dynasty and
Falcon Crest, preferring to devote more time to raising her sons. In 1988 she starred in the miniseries
The Fortunate Pilgrim.
Loren has also recorded well over two dozen songs throughout her career, including a best-selling album of comedic songs with
Peter Sellers; reportedly, she had to fend off his romantic advances. It was partly owing to Sellers' infatuation with Loren that he split with his first wife, Anne Howe. Loren has made it clear to numerous biographers that Sellers' affections were reciprocated only
platonically. This collaboration was covered in
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers where actress
Sonia Aquino portrayed Loren. It is said that the song "
Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)" by
Peter Sarstedt was inspired by Loren.
Loren in Kenya while serving as Goodwill Ambassador in 1992
In 1991, Loren received the
Academy Honorary Award for her contributions to
world cinema and was declared "one of the world cinema's treasures." In 1995, she received the
Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. She presented
Federico Fellini with his Honorary Oscar. In 2009 Loren stated on
Larry King Live that Fellini had planned to direct her in a film shortly before his death in 1993.Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Loren was selective about choosing her films and ventured into various areas of business, including cook books, eyewear, jewelry and perfume.
She received a
Golden Globe nomination for her performance in
Robert Altman's film
Ready to Wear (1994), co-starring
Julia Roberts.
In the comedy
Grumpier Old Men (1995), Loren played a
femme fatale opposite
Walter Matthau,
Jack Lemmon, and
Ann-Margret. The film was a box-office success and became Loren's biggest U.S hit in years.In 2001, Loren received a Special Grand Prix of the Americas Award at the
Montreal World Film Festival for her body of work. She filmed two projects in Canada during this time: the independent film
Between Strangers (2002), directed by her son Edoardo and co-starring
Mira Sorvino, and the television miniseries
Lives of the Saints (2004).
In 2009, after five years off the set and fourteen years since she starred in a prominent US theatrical film, Loren starred in
Rob Marshall's film version of
Nine, based on the
Broadway musical that tells the story of a director whose midlife crisis causes him to struggle to complete his latest film; he is forced to balance the influences of numerous formative women in his life, including his deceased mother. Loren was Marshall's first and only choice to portray the mother. The film also stars
Daniel Day-Lewis,
Penelope Cruz,
Kate Hudson,
Marion Cotillard, and
Nicole Kidman. As a part of the cast she received her first nomination for a
Screen Actors Guild Award.
As of 2010 Loren is working in Italy on a two-part television biopic of her early life titled
La Mia Casa È Piena di Specchi (translated
My House Is Full of Mirrors), based on of the memoir written by her sister Maria.Loren's primary residence has been in
Geneva,
Switzerland since late 2006. She also owns homes in
Los Angeles and
New York.
In September 1999, Loren filed a lawsuit against 76 adult websites for posting altered nude photos of her on the internet.Loren is a huge fan of the
football club
S.S.C. Napoli. In May 2007, when the team was third in
Serie B, she told the
Gazzetta dello Sport that she would do a striptease if the team won.Loren posed scantily-clad at 72 for the 2007
Pirelli Calendar along with such actresses as
Penelope Cruz and
Hilary Swank Marriage and familyLoren first met
Carlo Ponti in 1950 when she was 15 and he was 37. They married on September 17, 1957. However, Ponti was still officially married to his first wife Giuliana under Italian law because Italy did not recognize divorce at that time. The couple had their marriage annulled in 1962 to escape
bigamy charges. In 1965, Ponti obtained a divorce from Giuliana in France, allowing him to marry Loren on April 9, 1966. They later became French citizens after their application was approved by then French President
Georges Pompidou.The couple had two sons:
Carlo Ponti Jr. (born December 29, 1968) and
Edoardo Ponti (born January 6, 1973).
Loren remained married to Carlo Ponti until his death on January 10, 2007 of pulmonary complications.When asked in a November 2009 interview if she is ever likely to marry again, Loren replied "No, never again. It would be impossible to love anyone else."Her daughters-in-law are
Sasha Alexander and Andrea Meszaros. Loren has two grandchildren: Lucia Ponti (born May 12, 2006) and Vittorio Ponti (born April 3, 2007).
Filmography
