| Sophia Loren  AKA Sofia Villani Scicolone
Born: 20-Sep-1934
Birthplace: Pozzuoli, Italy
Gender: Female
Religion: Roman Catholic
Race or Ethnicity: White
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Actor Nationality: Italy
Executive summary: La Ciociara Sophia Loren was born in a hospital charity ward, and raised in poverty by her single mother. Her father was married to another woman, and refused to adopt his illegitimate daughter, but did allow her to take his surname. As a girl, she was so thin she was taunted and nicknamed 'Stuzzicadenti' -- 'Toothpick'.
By 14, though, she won "Princess of the Sea" honors in a beauty pageant. By 15 she was working as a model, and met producer Carlo Ponti, who was one of the judges in a pageant she won. He hired an acting coach to tutor her, and at 16 she was in her first film, Le Sei Mogli di Barbablù. At 17 Ponti cast her in her breakthrough role as the commoner who caught the prince's eye in the filmed opera La Favorita. The next year she played the lead in a film of Aida, but in both opera films her songs were dubbed by better singers.
Loren quickly became a major star and pin-up girl in Italy, and her first film to find success beyond her native land was La Donna del Fiume, released in America as The River Girl. Her first English-language film was Boy on a Dolphin with Alan Ladd in 1957, where she was memorable mostly for emerging from the water in a wet, skin-tight, transparent dress. She starred in numerous American films through the rest of that decade, but most were received lukewarmly at best. In 1960 she returned to Italy to star in the brutal wartime drama La Ciociara (Two Women) with Jean-Paul Belmondo. She won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance -- the first Academy Award ever given for a performance not in English -- but Loren had been unable to attend and no-one from the Academy called to tell her she had won. She found out the following morning, when Cary Grant, an ex-lover and Loren's co-star in Houseboat, called to offer his congratulations.
Through the 1960s and '70s, Loren worked in both European and American projects. Her best Italian films include Una Giornata Particolare (One Particular Day) with Loren as a bored housewife and Marcello Mastroianni as her gay acquaintance as Hitler comes to town, Matrimonio all'Italiana (Marriage Italian Style) with Loren as the hooker who lures Mastroianni into marriage, and L' Oro di Napoli (The Gold of Napoli), with Loren as a pizza-maker who loses her wedding ring.
Despite her va-va-va-voom image, her American work rarely attracted more than minimal box office. She sought vengeance against her lover Charlton Heston after he killed her father in El Cid, and she played the luscious double agent rescued by Gregory Peck in Arabesque, the jinxed girl who welcomed tugboat captain William Holden in The Key, and the whore idolized by Peter O'Toole in Man of La Mancha.
It was controversial in her native Italy when Loren married her mentor Ponti in 1957. Not only was he 45 to her 23, but he had been married previously, and neither the Catholic Church nor Italian government recognized his Mexican divorce. Ponti was charged with bigamy, but the charges were dropped when she had their marriage annulled. They continued living together -- scandalous at the time -- and remarried after his legal problems had been cleared. Still happily married, Ponti and Loren made three dozen films together, and they may have consciously struck back with their Ieri, Oggi, Domani, a 1963 comedy that poked fun at a Catholic priest and gently mocked Italian law on birth control.
Still beautiful at 72, she posed for the 2007 Pirelli calendar -- not as a stunt or as part of a senior citizens collection, but alongside models and movie stars half her age, including Penelope Cruz, Hilary Swank, and Naomi Watts.
Loren's sister, Anna Maria Scicolone, was married to Romano Mussolini, whose father was Italy's fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Their daughter, Loren's niece, Alessandra Mussolini, was elected to the Italian Parliament as a neo-Fascist in 1992. Father: Riccardo Scicolone (engineer)
Mother: Romilda Villani (piano teacher, b. 1910, d. 9-May-1991)
Sister: Anna Maria Scicolone (married Romano Mussolini, Benito Mussolini's son)
Boyfriend: Cary Grant (actor, dated 1956-57)
Husband: Carlo Ponti (m. 17-Sep-1957, annulled 1962, m. again 9-Apr-1966, d. 2007, two sons)
Son: Carlo Ponti, Jr. (symphony conductor, b. 29-Dec-1968)
Son: Edoardo Ponti (film director, b. 6-Jan-1973, engaged to actress Sasha Alexander)
Columbia Pictures
Oscar for Best Actress 1962 for Two Women
Oscar (honorary) 1991
Golden Globe 1964 World Film Favorite, Female
Golden Globe 1965 World Film Favorite, Female
Golden Globe 1969 World Film Favorite, Female
Golden Globe 1977 World Film Favorite, Female
Hollywood Walk of Fame 7060 Hollywood Blvd.
Endorsement of Pirelli 2006
Tax Evasion 1982, served 18 days in jail
Miscarriage twice
Risk Factors: Smoking
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
Nine (3-Dec-2009)
Between Strangers (30-Aug-2002) · Olivia
Francesca and Nunziata (16-Aug-2001)
Grumpier Old Men (22-Dec-1995) · Maria
Prêt-à-Porter (25-Dec-1994) · Isabella de la Fontaine
Courage (24-Sep-1986)
Aurora (1984)
Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (26-Oct-1980)
Firepower (27-Apr-1979)
Brass Target (9-Mar-1979)
Blood Feud (21-Dec-1978)
Angela (19-Apr-1978)
A Special Day (17-May-1977)
The Cassandra Crossing (18-Dec-1976)
Brief Encounter (12-Nov-1974)
Jury of One (11-Sep-1974)
The Voyage (11-Mar-1974)
Get Rita (1974)
Man of La Mancha (11-Dec-1972) · Dulcinea, Aldonza
White Sister (31-Mar-1972)
Lady Liberty (1971)
The Priest's Wife (1971)
Sunflower (14-Mar-1970)
Ghosts, Italian Style (23-Dec-1967) · Maria
More Than a Miracle (1-Nov-1967) · Isabella Candeloro
A Countess from Hong Kong (5-Jan-1967)
Arabesque (5-May-1966) · Yasmin Azir
Conflict (20-Jan-1966) · Judith
Lady L (17-Dec-1965) · Lady L
Operation Crossbow (1-Apr-1965) · Nora
Marriage Italian-Style (18-Dec-1964)
The Fall of the Roman Empire (26-Mar-1964)
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (19-Dec-1963) · Adelina
Five Miles to Midnight (12-Dec-1962)
The Condemned of Altona (30-Oct-1962)
Boccaccio '70 (22-Feb-1962)
Madame (22-Dec-1961)
El Cid (14-Dec-1961)
Two Women (22-Dec-1960) · Cesira
A Breath of Scandal (16-Dec-1960)
The Millionairess (18-Oct-1960) · Epifania
It Started in Naples (7-Aug-1960)
Two Nights with Cleopatra (18-Jul-1960)
Heller in Pink Tights (29-Feb-1960)
That Kind of Woman (Jun-1959) · Kay
Houseboat (19-Nov-1958)
The Black Orchid (Sep-1958)
The Key (28-May-1958) · Stella
Desire Under the Elms (12-Mar-1958) · Anna Cabot
Legend of the Lost (17-Dec-1957) · Dita
The Pride and the Passion (10-Jul-1957)
Boy on a Dolphin (19-Apr-1957) · Phaedra
Lucky to Be a Woman (30-Dec-1955)
The Miller's Beautiful Wife (27-Oct-1955)
The River Girl (29-Dec-1954)
Too Bad She's Bad (28-Dec-1954)
Attila (27-Dec-1954)
The Gold of Naples (23-Dec-1954)
Poverty and Nobility (8-Apr-1954)
Official Website:
http://www.sophialoren.com/
Appears on the cover of:
Life, 16-Sep-1966, DETAILS: The Face of Our Time by Alfred Eisenstadt (photo by Al Eisenstadt, Sophia in a sexy see-through dress)
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