• Virgins v. Vixens

  Project: Rungay - Project Runway from a VERY gay perspective. - Found Jun. 30, 2009 ... vs. a Vixen, as ... MISS AUDREY HEPBURN goes up against the former Sofia Villani Scicolone, MISS SOPHIA LOREN. And don't give us...

• Marble head of Emperor Titus found

  MSNBC - Found Jun. 24, 2009 Known to Italians as the birthplace of movie star Sophia Loren, Pozzuoli was once among the major trading ports of the Mediterranean, called...

• Is Chrysler Too Big a Mess for Fiat's Turnaround Artista?

  Time - Found Jun. 21, 2009 ... of a 52-year-old Italian icon once driven by movie stars such as Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren--which Marchionne calls 'our iPod.' All...

• Italian Icon Sophia Loren, Internationally-Known Tenor Jose Carreras ...

  KPTH Fox 44 - Found Jun. 9, 2009 Italian icon Sophia Loren welcomes MSC Splendida as the latest addition to the MSC Cruises' fleet amidst lavish festivities.

• Rani compares Sherlyn Chopra with Sophia Loren

  MSN.co.in - Found Jun. 6, 2009 ... legend Sophia Loren. Since few years back, Bipasha Basu was compared with Sophia Loren, Sherlyn was naturally ecstatic.   'Sophia Loren...

• Italian Icon Sophia Loren, Internationally-Known Tenor Jose Carreras ...

  NewsBlaze - Found Jun. 9, 2009 Italian icon Sophia Loren Jose Carreras Cruising the heart of the Mediterranean and the adjacent European Atlantic seaboard, MSC Splendida is...

• Italian Icon Sophia Loren, Internationally-Known Tenor Jose Carreras ...

  Wave 3 - Found Jun. 9, 2009 Italian icon Sophia Loren welcomes MSC Splendida as the latest addition to the MSC Cruises' fleet amidst lavish festivities.

• Behind the Scenes of Bon Jovi's Iran Video

  TV Guide Online - Found 23 hours ago 'I think it's cute as anything you've ever seen, like when you hear Sophia Loren speak English,' Madadian enthuses.

• Doak Walker, where are you, man?

  The Baytown Sun - Found 23 hours ago I've enjoyed reviewing the lives of Dean Martin, James Cagney, the beautiful yet yummy Ava Gardner, and the sensational Sophia Loren.

• Farrah Fawcett reunited with ex-husband Lee Majors before she died

  St. Petersburg Times - Found Jul. 1, 2009 ... always wanted to talk to her again, but he was just afraid to speak to her before.' [Photo: Farrah and Lee with Sophia Loren back in 1977. AP] Farrah Fawcett Made Peace With Majors - MaleFirst Mens Magazine Farrah Fawcett and ex-husband had reconciled - ONE News Fawcett spoke to ex Lee Majors before she passed away - Los Angeles Times Farrah reconnected with ex Lee Majors - Times of India Explore All

  MaleFirst Mens Magazine

Sophia Loren
Loren at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009
Born	Sofia Villani Scicolone September 20, 1934 (1934-09-20) (age 74) Pozzuoli, Naples, Italy (Cassino)
Other name(s)	Sofia Lazzaro Sofia Scicolone
Years active	1950 - present
Spouse(s)	Carlo Ponti (1957 - 1962, 1966 - 2007(his death))
Official website

Sophia Loren (born September 20, 1934) is an Academy Award-winning Italian film actress. She is widely considered to be the most popular Italian actress of her time and is also famous for being a major international sex symbol.

Early life

Loren was born Sofia Villani Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on September 20, 1934, to Riccardo Scicolone and Romilda Villani. Riccardo refused to marry Romilda, leaving her, a piano teacher and aspiring actress, without support. Romilda, Sofia and sister Maria returned to Pozzuoli, near Naples, to live with Sofia's grandmother in order 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 Sofia ran to the shelter, she was struck by shrapnel and wounded in the chin. Subsequently the family moved to Naples and begged distant relatives to take them in.

After the war, Sofia and her family returned to Pozzuoli. Grandmother Luisa opened their living room as a pub, selling homemade cherry liquor. Romilda played the piano, Maria sang and the shy Sofia waited tables and washed dishes. The place was very popular with the American GIs stationed nearby.

When she was 14 years old, Sofia 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 the Mervyn LeRoy film, Quo Vadis, thus launching her career as a motion picture actress. She eventually changed her name to Sophia Loren.

Marriage

Loren first met Carlo Ponti in 1950 during a beauty contest in which he was a judge. Having helped launch Gina Lollobrigida's career, he had Loren do many small parts. Later, while in Atlanta in 1957, he had lawyers obtain a Mexican divorce from his wife Giuliana and a marriage by proxy to Loren. Italy did not recognize divorce at the time, and the Catholic Church denounced their marriage. In 1962 the marriage was annulled. After this he arranged with Giuliana for the three of them move to France, which at that time allowed divorce, and they became French citizens. In 1965 Giuliana Ponti divorced her husband, allowing Ponti to marry Loren in 1966 in a civil wedding in Sèvres.^{1 2 3}

Mother of Carlo Ponti Jr. and Edoardo Ponti. Edoardo Ponti married actress Sasha Alexander in Geneva, Switzerland, they have a daughter Lucia Sofia, born May 12, 2006.

Career

By the late 1950s, Loren's star had begun to rise in Hollywood, with films such as 1957's Boy on a Dolphin and The Pride and the Passion in which she co-starred with Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra. Grant, reportedly, fell so deeply in love with Loren that he ardently proposed marriage, despite her obvious loyalty to Carlo Ponti and Grant's own union with actress and writer Betsy Drake. Loren refused.

International fame

Loren in the trailer for Five Miles to Midnight (1962)

Loren became an international film star with a five-picture contract with Paramount Pictures. Among her films at this time: 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 with blonde hair (a wig) for the first time. Loren demonstrated considerable dramatic skills and attracted respect as a dramatic and comedic actress, especially in Italian projects where she could express herself more freely, although she acquired great proficiency in English.

In 1960, Loren's acclaimed performance in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women earned many awards, including the Cannes, Venice and Berlin Film Festivals' best performance prizes. Her performance was also awarded an Academy Award for Best Actress, the first major Academy Award for a non-English-language performance and Latin actress. Initially, the stark, gritty story of a mother and daughter surviving in war-torn Italy was to cast Anna Magnani as Sophia's mother. Negotiations, perhaps due to billing, broke down and the screenplay was rewritten to make Loren the mother; Eleonora Brown portrayed the daughter.

Belying the typical portrayal of the beautiful actress as vacuous and emptyheaded, Loren was 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."

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.

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 with Clark Gable (1960), Vittorio De Sica's triptych Ieri, oggi, domani (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.

Despite the failure of many of her films to generate sales at the box office, Loren has an impressive roster of credits and work with famous co-stars. Invariably, she has turned in a charming performance and worn some of the most lavish costumes ever created for the movies. Some of her most attractive performances include A Breath of Scandal (1960), Madame Sans-Gêne (1962), Heller in Pink Tights (1960) and More than a Miracle (1967).

Musical career

Loren 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.^{citation needed}

Later career

Loren in Kenya while serving as Goodwill Ambassador for United Nations and High Commissioner for Refugees in November 1992

Once she became a mother, Loren worked less. She moved into her 40's and 50's with roles in films including the last De Sica movie, The Voyage, with Richard Burton and Ettore Scola's A Special Day with Mastroianni.

In 1980, Loren portrayed herself, as well as her mother, in a made-for-television biopic adaptation of her autobiography. Actresses, Ritza Brown and Chiara Ferrari played Loren at younger ages. 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.

In her 60s, Loren became selective about choosing her films and ventured into various areas of business, including cook books, eyewear, jewelry and perfume. She also made well-received appearances in Robert Altman's Ready to Wear (her final film with Mastroianni) and the 1995 comedy Grumpier Old Men playing a femme fatale opposite Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

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.

In 1993, Loren presented Federico Fellini with an Academy Honorary Award. In 1998, she presented the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film for Roberto Benigni's Life Is Beautiful.

In 2009 she co-presented the category of Best Actress at the 81st Academy Awards. After four years off the big screen, Loren will star in Rob Marshall's film version of Nine, based on the Broadway musical. Loren will play the mother of Guido Contini, who's portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis.

Current activities

Loren, at the age of 72, appeared in the 2007 Pirelli Calendar entitled "A Bed and Five Stories" along with Hillary Swank, Penelope Cruz, Naomi Watts, and Lou Doillon.⁴

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 they achieved promotion to Serie A for the 2007/08 season. "The fans have a total passion, the city deserves promotion", Loren said. Although they achieved promotion to Serie A on June 10, 2007, Loren did not do a striptease.⁵

Loren's famous eyes can be found on the Italian wine Fattoria Paradiso bottles.

There is a street in the city of Etobicoke, Toronto, Ontario named for her.⁶

In 2009, it was revealed that Loren had written a letter in favour of the beatification of John Paul II. ⁷

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Other notes
1950	I am the Capataz	Secretary of the Dictator
	Barbablu's six wives	Girl kidnapped
	Tototarzan	A tarzanide
	I Devote, Thee	A popular to the party of piedigrotta
	Hearts at Sea	Extra	Uncredited
1951	White Leprosy	A girl in the boardinghouse
	Owner of the Vapor	Ballerinetta
	Milan Billionaire	Extra	Uncredited
	Magician for Force	The bride
	Quo Vadis	Lygia's slave	Uncredited
	It's Him!... Yes! Yes!	Odalisca
	Anna	Night club assistant	Uncredited
1952	And Arrived the Accordatore	Amica di Giulietta
	I Dream of Zorro	Conchita
	The Favorite	Leonora
1953	The Country of Campanelli	N/A
	Pilgrim of Love	N/A
	We Find Ourselves in Arcade	Marisa
	Two Nights with Cleopatra	Cleopatra/Nisca
	Girls Marked Danger	Elvira
	Good Folk's Sunday	Ines
	Aida	Aida
	Africa Under the Seas	Barbara Lama
1954	Neapolitan Carousel	Sisina
	A Day in Court	Anna
	The Anatomy of Love	The girl
	Poverty and Nobility	Gemma
	The Gold of Naples	Sofia
	Attila	Honoria
	Too Bad She's Bad	Lina Stroppiani
1955	The Sign of Venus	Agnese Tirabassi
	The Miller's Beautiful Wife	Carmela
	The River Girl	Nives Mongolini
	Scandal in Sorrento	Donna Sofia
1956	Lucky to Be a Woman	Antonietta Fallari
1957	Boy on a Dolphin	Phaedra
	The Pride and the Passion	Juana
	Legend of the Lost	Dita
1958	Desire Under the Elms	Anna Cabot
	The Key	Stella	Based on the novel Stella by Jan de Hartog
	The Black Orchid	Rose Bianco
	Houseboat	Cinzia Zaccardi
1959	That Kind of Woman	Kay
1960	Heller in Pink Tights	Angela Rossini
	It Started in Naples	Lucia Curio	Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
	The Millionairess	Epifania Parerga
	A Breath of Scandal	Princess Olympia
	Two Women	Cesira	Academy Award for Best Actress BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role NYFCC Award for Best Actress Best Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival)
1961	El Cid	Ximena
1962	Boccaccio '70	Zoe
	Madame Sans-Gêne	Catherine Hubscher aka Madame Sans-Gêne
	The Condemned of Altona	Johanna
	Five Miles to Midnight	Lisa Macklin
1963	Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow	Adelina Sbaratti/Anna Molteni/Mara
1964	The Fall of the Roman Empire	Lucilla
	Marriage Italian-Style	Filumena Marturano	Nominated - Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
1965	Operation Crossbow	Nora
	Lady L	Lady Louise Lendale/Lady L
1966	Judith	Judith
	Arabesque	Yasmin Azir
1967	A Countess from Hong Kong	Natascha
	More Than a Miracle	Isabella Candeloro
1968	Ghosts - Italian Style	Maria Lojacono
1970	I Girasoli (Sunflower)	Giovanna
1971	Lady Liberty	Maddalena Ciarrapico
	The Priest's Wife	Valeria Billi
1972	The Sin	Hermana Germana
	Man of La Mancha	Aldonza/Dulcinea
1974	The Voyage	Adriana de Mauro
	Verdict	Teresa Leoni
	Brief Encounter	Anna Jesson
1975	Sex Pot	Pupa
1976	The Cassandra Crossing	Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain
1977	A Special Day	Antoinette
1978	Angela	Angela Kincaid
	Blood Feud	Titina Paterno
	Brass Target	Mara
1979	Firepower	Adele Tasca
1980	Sophia Loren: Her Own Story	Herself/Romilda Villani
1984	Aurora by Night	Aurora
1986	Courage	Marianna Miraldo
1988	Running Away	Cesira
	The Fortunate Pilgrim	Lucia
1990	Saturday, Sunday and Monday	Rosa Priore
1994	Prêt-à-Porter	Isabella de la Fontaine	National Board of Review Award for Best Acting by an Ensemble Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress - Motion Picture
1995	Grumpier Old Men	Maria Sophia Coletta Ragetti
1997	Soleil	Maman Lévy
2001	Francesca and Nunziata	Francesca Montorsi
2002	Between Strangers	Olivia
2004	Lives of the Saints	Teresa Innocente
	Too Much Romance... It's Time for Stuffed Peppers	Maria
2009	Nine	Guido's Mother	Post-production

References

1. ^ Exshaw, John (January 12, 2007). "Carlo Ponti". The Independent. http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article2144032.ece. 
2. ^ Sheri & Bob Stritof. "Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti Marriage Profile". About. http://marriage.about.com/od/entertainmen1/p/sophialoren.htm. 
3. ^ "Italian Producer Carlo Ponti". Associated Press. January 2007. http://www.tvfanforums.net/index.php?showtopic=17345. "archived at TV Fan Forums" 
4. ^ "Models". Pirelli Calendar. 2007. http://www.pirellical.com/noflash/jsp/Modelle.jsp?Year=2007&Lang=en. "(alternate Flash version / access)" 
5. ^ Staff writers (May 15, 2007). "Napoli fan Sofia Loren to strip if team go up". Thomson Reuters. http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldFootballNews/idUKL1508471620070515. Retrieved on April 23, 2008. 
6. ^ Sophia Loren Court, Toronto, Ontario at Google Maps
7. ^ AFP article

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sophia Loren

• Sophia Loren Official website
• Sophia Loren at the Internet Movie Database
• Sophia Loren at the TCM Movie Database
• Sophia Loren at TV.com

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Persondata
NAME	Loren, Sophia
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Scicolone, Sofia Villani
SHORT DESCRIPTION	actress
DATE OF BIRTH	September 20, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rome, Italy
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH