• Video: Cinematographers roundtable

  Hollywood Reporter - Found 8 hours ago Poster: Years ago I did something with Sophia Loren. When I got to the location the director says, 'Sophia wants to meet you.' And I said...

• NINE - The Movie - Based on 7-Time Tony Award-Winning Broadway ...

  Reuters - Found 18 hours ago ... starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench, Kate Hudson, Fergie (Stacy Ferguson), and Sophia Loren. NINE - The Movie - Based on 7-Time Tony Award-Winning Broadway ... - Houston Chronicle NINE Soundtrack to Be Released Digitally December 15; Track List ... - Broadway World NINE - The Movie - Based on 7-Time Tony Award-Winning Broadway ... - Interest!ALERT NINE - The Movie - Based on 7-Time Tony Award-Winning Broadway ... - Forbes.com Explore All

• You Moss be ashamed, Kate

  The Sun - Found Nov. 19, 2009 We need to go back to the days of MARILYN MONROE, ELIZABETH TAYLOR and SOPHIA LOREN, when a beautiful, healthy, curvy body was the image to... Kate Moss: an icon of willpower and strength - Times Online Video: Kate Moss comes under fire for 'skinny' remarks - MSNBC Rihanna Admires Moss' Style - MaleFirst Mens Magazine Amy Jenkins: We can't help ourselves: our love affair with skinny ... - The Independent Explore All

  Telegraph

• Rob Marshall?s Nine Movie Trailer #2

  /Film - Found Nov. 18, 2009 ... from his youth ( Fergie ), his confidant and costume designer ( Judi Dench ), and his deceased mother ( Sophia Loren ). View the trailer below...

• A Non-Committal Post on Nine

  Film Experience Blog - Found Nov. 16, 2009 The entire cast (sans Sophia Loren) was there and gazing upon Judi Dench and Daniel Day-Lewis in the same space but especially seeing Nicole...

• Sunday Real Estate Round-Up, 11/15/09

  Luxist - Found Nov. 15, 2009 Sophia Loren's son Edoardo Ponti and his wife Sasha Alexander have listed their four-bedroom Los Angeles home for $2.135 million.

• Hot stuff 2010: Panama, Biarritz, Rajasthan, Sicily, Cuba and ...

  Times Online - Found Nov. 14, 2009 It was used as a resort by Tito's government (a glamorous one, too Marilyn Monroe, Sophia Loren, Richard Burton and Liz Taylor stayed), but...

• Weinsteins Go Back to Disney For Help Promoting the Musical Nine

  /Film - Found Nov. 11, 2009 ... on Fellini ?s 8 1/2 , starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Penélope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Marion Cotillard, Nicole Kidman, Judi Dench and Sophia Loren.

• Sophia Loren Scared of Daniel Day Lewis

  MaleFirst Mens Magazine - Found Nov. 10, 2009 Sophia Loren felt uncomfortable working with Daniel Day-Lewis on movie musical Nine - because the actor is "scary" and "intimidating". Winslet Nominated for European Film Award - MaleFirst Mens Magazine Oscars rewind: 'Slumdog Millionaire' tied for most European Film ... - Gold Derby Kate Winslet nominated for Best Actress title at European Film ... - Malaysia Sun Sophia Loren Is 'Scared' Of Daniel Day-Lewis? - Post Chronicle Explore All

  MaleFirst Mens Magazine

• The things they say:

  Hollywood - Found Nov. 9, 2009 "I still don't know what I want to do when I grow up." Screen icon SOPHIA LOREN is considering a career change.

Sophia Loren
Loren at the 81st Academy Awards in February 2009
Born	Sofia Villani Scicolone September 20, 1934 (1934-09-20) (age 75) Pozzuoli, Naples, Italy (Cassino)
Other name(s)	Sofia Lazzaro Sofia Scicolone
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1950 – present
Spouse(s)	Carlo Ponti (1957 – 1962, 1966 – 2007)
Official website

Sophia Loren (born September 20, 1934) is an Italian film actress and an international sex symbol.¹ In 1961, she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for Two Women, becoming the first actor to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance.

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. Scicolone refused to marry Villani, leaving her, a piano teacher and aspiring actress, without support. Romilda, Loren and sister Maria returned to Pozzuoli, near Naples, to live with Loren'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 Loren 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, Loren and her family returned to Pozzuoli. Grandmother Luisa opened their living room as a pub, 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 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 Mexico 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 to 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.^{2 3 4}

After several miscarriages, Loren gave birth to Carlo Ponti Jr. (born December 29,1968), now a conductor, and Edoardo Ponti (born January 6, 1973), now a film director. 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 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 empty-headed, 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 a large roster of credits and work with famous co-stars. Invariably, she has worn some of the most lavish costumes ever created for the movies. Some of her 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 2001, Loren received a Special Grand Prix of the Americas Award at the Montreal World Film Festival for her body of work.⁵

In 2009, she co-presented the category of Best Actress at the 81st Academy Awards. After four years off the set and fourteen years since she starred in a prominent US theatrical film, Loren will star 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 choice to portray the mother. During the red carpet for the 81st Academy Awards, she expressed how much she enjoyed the filming.

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.⁶

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.⁷

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.⁸

Loren is referenced in the song "Italian Girls" by 80s duo Hall & Oates on the 1982 album H20. The lyrics in the bridge say "I see Sophia on the Silver Screen, there must be more like her in Rome."

In 2009, it was revealed that Loren had written a letter in favour of the beatification of John Paul II. ⁹

Filmography

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sophia Loren

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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