Sophia Loren

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The acting career of Sophia Loren (born 1934) has covered over 50 years and more than 100 films. Her work has earned virtually every major acting award the international film community has to offer.

Growing up

Born as Sofia Scicolone on September 20, 1934 in Rome, Italy, she was the illegitimate child of Romilda Villani and Riccardo Scicolone. Sofia grew up in Pozzuoli, near Naples, Italy. Her mother, Sofia, and eventually her sister Maria, lived with her maternal grandparents, aunts and uncles in a two room apartment.

Sofia said "the two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty." Her mother's unmarried status lead to a life of poverty. Sofia was so undernourished as a child she was called Sofia Stuzzicadente or "Sofia the toothpick." By all accounts she was a thin, shy, fearful and unattractive girl.

World War II

Sofia recalls the war as a time of cold, starvation and sickness. Her grandfather and uncles worked in a munitions factory which supported the family briefly. The plant, however, was a frequent target of bombings. During bombing raids Sofia remembers hiding in train tunnels but leaving them before the morning trains started.

Italy was devastated following the end of the war. Food, jobs and money were scarce, particularly for unmarried mothers. One way women could make money was by participating in beauty pageants. Sofia, who had blossomed from 'the toothpick' into a lovely teenager entered such a pageant as a teenager and was a finalist. After this contest, Sofia's mother learned extras were needed for the film Quo Vadis. Hoping for employment, her mother packed their belongings and headed for Rome.

The Movies-Bit Parts

Sofia and her mother were hired as extras for Quo Vadis. When the film was over they were unemployed. Her mother headed back home but Sofia remained in Rome. During the early 1950s she secured work modelling for fumetti magazines. Comic-like, these magazines used actual photographs. The dialogue bubbles were called fumetti-hence the popular name.

Fumettis were quite popular throughout Italy and Sofia was in demand. She used this recognition to get bit parts in movies. Under her real name she made eight films. One director suggested she change her name to Sofia Lazzaro, which she did for three films.

Carlo Ponti and His Influence

Sofia's luck changed due to an encounter at a night club holding a Miss Rome contest. A stranger asked her to enter the contest but she refused. The stranger returned a second time and told Sofia one of the judges, Carlo Ponti, suggested she enter. She entered the contest and won second prize. More important she also won a screen test with Ponti, one of Italy's leading film directors.

Ponti gave her bit parts in films, believing there was something worthwhile there. Borrowing Marta Toren's last name, she changed the spelling of her first and her last name to Sophia Loren. She quickly made several films while taking drama lessons.

The Big Break

In 1953, producers were filming Aida with Gina Lollobrigida. The concept was to have a beautiful actress lip-synch the opera's arias which would be performed by one of Italy most famous opera singers, Renata Tebaldi. Lollobrigida backed out when she learned about the lip synching. Ponti suggested Loren as a replacement. Appearing completely painted black, Loren made the film.

Her success in Aida lead Loren to parts in nine films that year. One was Anatomy of Love which co-starred Marcello Mastroianni and Vittorio De Sica, two men she would successfully continue to work with over time. By the mid-1950s Loren had established herself as an Italian sex symbol. Loren once commented, "Sex-appeal is 50 percent what you've got and 50 percent what people think you've got."

Sex Symbol to Serious Actress

In 1954 Loren again teamed up with De Sica for The Gold of Naples. This time de Sica was directing the film. Sam Shaw, in Sophia Loren: In the Camera Eye, noted "De Sica taught her [Loren] the craft of acting. Secrets of interpretation, restraint. It took a director like him to get the talent out of her." Loren agreed, claiming "the second man of my life is Vittorio De Sica."

De Sica once stated to an interviewer, "She was created differently, behaved differently, affected me differently from any woman I have known. I looked at that face, those unbelievable eyes, and I saw it all as a miracle." He considered her "the essential Italian woman." Loren had a box-office success when she teamed up with Mastroianni, in Too Bad She's Bad, with De Sica directing. In The Films of Sophia Loren, Tom Crawley noted Too Bad She's Bad was the "genesis of the most successful partnership in Italian movies." Loren explained this success, "The three of us were united in a kind of complicity that the Neapolitans always have among themselves. The same sense of humor, the same rhythms, the same philosophies of life, the same natural cynicism. All three of us did our roles instinctively."

The Marriage Scandal

In 1957 Loren appeared in her first English-speaking film, The Pride and the Passion, with Cary Grant. Despite the fact that Grant was married, romance was rumored between the stars. This concerned Ponti, who was Loren's agent and manager. Ponti, despite a wife and two children, was also in love with Loren. From all accounts it seemed Loren was also in love with Ponti. "What nobody could understand then and still can't is the extraordinary power of the man, " Loren once claimed in an interview.

This relationship was troublesome in Italy which did not recognize divorce. Loren found herself embroiled in a scandal, when Ponti obtained a Mexican divorce from his wife. Loren and Ponti were married by proxy in Mexico on September 17, 1957. The Vatican refused to recognize the divorce and subsequent marriage and labeled the couple public sinners. After a hearing, warrants were issued for Carlo (as a bigamist) and Loren (as a concubine).

Hollywood at Last

Loren's first Hollywood film was the 1958 Desire Under the Elms. During this year she worked with Peter Sellers in another film from which they recorded an album. One single from the album "Goodness Gracious Me" topped the charts in England.

Over the next years Loren worked on ten films. Two of the most important were El Cid and Two Women. El Cid with Charlton Heston is probably the largest grossing film of Loren's career. Two Women achieved greater importance in Loren's life. Loren received numerous Best Actress awards, including an Academy Award for her depiction of a mother struggling during war. This was the first Academy Award ever given to a foreign actress in a foreign language film.

Personal Life

In 1963 the Pontis were charged with public bigamy and their marriage was annulled. Hoping to resolve this problem, the Pontis moved to France where they became citizens. In 1965 the French court granted a divorce to Giuliana, Ponti's wife. On April 9, 1967 Loren remarried Ponti in a small French civil wedding.

While Loren enjoyed a successful career, she also attempted to become pregnant. She suffered two miscarriages after which she underwent a series of tests. When Loren again became pregnant her doctor ordered complete bed rest. On December 28, 1968, Hubert Leoni Carlo Ponti, Jr. (known as Cipi), was born. Loren had spent almost the entire pregnancy in bed.

Five years later on January 1, 1973, Eduardo Ponti arrived. Again several months of bed rest were ordered by her physician. Despite the lengthy confinements, Loren was overjoyed. In a Good Housekeeping interview with Heather Kirby, Loren claimed childbirth "is something women are born for, the continuation of life." During this period an Italian appellate court also dismissed all bigamy charges against Ponti.

The early to mid-1970s proved to be a very productive time for Loren. She made ten films and wrote a cookbook, In the Kitchen with Love, published in 1972. Unfortunately these good times were not destined to last.

Financial Problems

On February 8, 1977, Italian police searched the Pontis' private home and business offices. The government believed Ponti was guilty of income tax evasion, the misuse of government subsidies, and the illegal export of Italian funds. A warrant was issued for Ponti's arrest. Loren was charged as an accomplice.

In 1979 the government tried the couple, in absentia. Ponti was found guilty and sentenced to four years in prison, and fined 22 billion lire (about 24 million dollars). Loren was acquitted. Ponti was eventually cleared of all charges in 1987.

Other Endeavors

Loren continued making films, but she also began other endeavors. She published Sophia: Living and Loving, her own story, written with A.E. Hotchner. She also moved into marketing when she became the first female celebrity with her own perfume. "Sophia" a combination of jasmine and roses was manufactured by Coty. In 1981 she partnered with Zyloware to market the Sophia Loren Eyewear collection.

Loren was asked to be the first female grand marshall of the annual Columbus Day Parade in New York City, a parade celebrating Italian-Americans, which she did in 1984. She also published her second book, Sophia Loren on Women and Beauty.

All these activities were interrupted by legal problems. A tax court sentenced Loren to a 30 days jail term for income tax evasion on a 1966 filing. Loren promised to return once work obligations were completed. She began the sentence May 19, 1982. She served 17 days at a women's prison and was paroled early.

Later Work

Since the mid-1980s Loren has continued making films, shifting towards television movies. She used her celebrity status on behalf of charity projects such as the Statue of Liberty, protecting Greco-Roman ruins and drought-relief work for Somalian refugees.

In 1991, she received a Special Academy Award, for as the Academy noted, being "one of the genuine treasures of world cinema who, in a career rich with memorable performances, has added permanent luster to our art form." Sadly though, Loren also experienced a great loss with the death of her mother that year. In an interview, Loren said "I think when a mother dies the whole world collapses because she's the anchor that you don't have anymore."

Sixty-Plus

After turning 60 in 1994, Loren received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star and numerous lifetime achievement awards. Entertainment Weekly selected her as one of The 100 Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in 1996. She appeared in Pret-a-Porter (Ready to Wear), which marked her fifteenth and final pairing with Mastroianni, who died shortly after.

Fans seemed to agree with Sam Shaw when he stated, "Whatever she does on screen is right. She can do ordinary pictures; and still she remains an international superstar, still she grows as a human being." With accolades like this Sophia Loren will be a presence for sometime to come.

Further Reading

Crawley, Tony, The Films of Sophia Loren, Citadel Press, 1976.

Harris, Warren G. Sophia Loren, Simon & Schuster, 1998.

Shaw, Sam, Sophia Loren: In the Camera Eye, Exeter Books, 1979.

Art News, March 23, 1998.

Chicago Tribune, October 7, 1990.

Esquire, August 1994.

Good Housekeeping, August 1994.

Houston Chronicle, February 2, 1994.

New York Times, August 18, 1983; August 25, 1984.

Orange County Register, February 19, 1994.

People, March 11, 1988.

San Diego Union-Tribune, July 8, 1988.

Washington Post, May 20, 1982.

"Sophia Loren, " CelebSite,http://www.celebsite.com (March 25, 1998).

"Contemporary Authors-Sophia Loren, " http://galenet.gale.com (March 24, 1998).

"The Epitome of Woman … Sophia Loren, " http://www.spyderempire.com/sophia (March 25, 1998).

Loren, Sophia (sōfē'ə lôrĕn'), 1934-, Italian film actress, b. as Sophia Scicoloni. She grew up in the slums of Naples. With the help of Italian producer Carlo Ponti (later her husband) she gained international fame as a beautiful and accomplished film actress in both tragic dramas and boisterous comedies. She won the first Academy Award for a foreign-language performance for her role in Two Women (1961), and she received a special Academy Award in 1991 for her body of work. Her movies include The Gold of Naples (1954), The Pride and the Passion (1957), Houseboat (1958), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963), Marriage Italian Style (1964), and A Special Day (1977). In the autobiographical television movie Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (1980), she played herself and her mother.

Quotes:

"There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap into this source, you will truly have defeated age."

"Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. You must be able to sustain yourself against staggering blows. There is no code of conduct to help beginners. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent."

"Everything you see I owe to spaghetti."

"Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life."

"The two big advantages I had at birth were to have been born wise and to have been born in poverty."

Biography

The voluptuous Sophia Loren was among the most successful international stars of the postwar era; not only did she rise to fame as a sex symbol, but she also won a measure of critical acclaim rarely afforded most of her foreign-born contemporaries. Born Sofia Scicolone in Rome on September 20, 1934, she and her single mother lived in abject poverty in the war-torn slums of Naples. At the age of 14, she began entering area beauty contests, later becoming a model and appearing in a number of uncredited bit parts in films. After winning a beauty contest in Rome, Loren was signed to a film contract by producer Carlo Ponti, who began grooming her for stardom by recruiting drama coaches and casting her in small movie roles, including an appearance in the 1951 smash Anna, under the name "Sofia Lazzaro." For 1952's La Favorita, her first larger role, Ponti changed her name to Sophia Loren, and with the following year's La Tratta Delle Bianche, she earned third billing after Silvana Pampanini and Eleanora Rossi-Drago.

By the mid-'50s, Loren was a star in Italy as well as a major sex symbol, but with the exception of 1955's Attila Flagello di Dio, co-starring Anthony Quinn, few of her pictures were distributed internationally. That changed with Vittorio de Sica's L'Oro di Napoli, which was recut and dubbed for foreign sale, resulting in poor reviews. Loren, however, was singled out for the strength of her performance as a Neapolitan shopkeeper, surprising many critics who had dismissed her as merely another bombshell. As a result, 1955's La Donna del Fiume was distributed in both the U.S. and Britain, as were a number of other subsequent projects. Eventually, Loren emerged as an international star, and Ponti soon declared her ready for Hollywood. She moved tentatively into the English-language market with a pair of films shot in Europe, 1957's Boy on a Dolphin (in which she appeared opposite Alan Ladd) and The Pride and the Passion (starring Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant).

In 1957, Loren and Ponti were wed in Mexico. Their marriage was a national scandal in the predominantly Catholic Italy because Ponti had already been married once before. A series of legal complications ensued -- one prominent Italian Catholic magazine even instructed readers to boycott Loren's movies. In the meantime, Ponti orchestrated with Paramount a four-film contract for Loren's services, beginning with 1958's Desire Under the Elms. In Hollywood, her acting skills blossomed, and she won Best Actress honors at the 1959 Venice Film Festival for her work in Martin Ritt's drama The Black Orchid. However, she proved unable to draw audiences, a situation which her next film, George Cukor's idiosyncratic Western Heller in Pink Tights, failed to remedy. The 1960 romantic comedy It Started in Naples (with Clark Gable) was Loren's commercial breakthrough, but Paramount had lost faith in her star power and cut her loose. She next traveled to Britain to film Anthony Asquith's The Millionairess.

Upon returning to Italy, Loren reunited with de Sica in 1961's La Ciociara, a wartime drama in which she starred as a widowed mother caught in a love triangle with her teen daughter (Eleanora Brown) and Jean-Paul Belmondo. Climaxed by a brutal rape scene, the film won widespread acclaim, and Loren's gut-wrenching performance earned her an Academy Award, the first foreign-language performer to win the Best Actress prize. She was also so honored at the Cannes Film Festival. She next shot 1961's El Cid in Spain with Charlton Heston, followed by the de Sica episode of the anthology Boccaccio '70. On the strength of her Oscar win, she also returned to English-language fare with 1963's Five Miles to Midnight, followed a year later by The Fall of the Roman Empire. Again her success was minimal, and she went back to the relative comforts of the Italian film industry for Ieri, Oggi, Domani and Matrimonio all'Italiana, both directed by de Sica and both co-starring Marcello Mastroianni.

In 1965, Ponti signed a production deal with MGM; a small role for Loren in Operation Crossbow and a larger part in Lady L were the results, followed by a series of films which cast her variously as a Jewish wife (1966's Judith), an Arab mistress (1966's Arabesque), and a former Russian prostitute (A Countess From Hong Kong). None of these projects were well received, however, and after the failure of the fairy tale C'era una Volta and Questi Fantasmi, the Ponti/MGM deal ended unceremoniously. Despite her recent lack of success, Loren nevertheless remained a major talent, and in 1969 she even won a Golden Globe award as the world's most popular female star. Still, her popularity was not reflected by her box-office totals; projects like de Sica's 1970 picture I Girasoli and 1971's La Moglie del Prete performed well in Italy but played disastrously virtually everywhere else. Another return to Hollywood to appear in the musical The Man of La Mancha was also met with an icy reception.

Loren spent the majority of the mid-'70s exclusively in Italy, starring in de Sica's Il Viaggio and reuniting with Mastroianni in 1975's La Pupa del Gangster. When a dubbed version of 1977's Una Giornata Particolare found favor with American audiences, Hollywood again came calling, resulting in a pair of thrillers, 1978's The Brass Target and the next year's Firepower. Also in 1979, Loren penned her autobiography, Sophia -- Living and Loving: Her Own Story, and in 1980 played herself in a TV-movie based on the book. She did not reappear before the cameras for another four years, instead writing a beauty book and launching a perfume named in her honor. In the wake of 1984's Qualcosa di Biondo she appeared onscreen rarely, teaming with Mastroianni one last time in Robert Altman's 1994 film Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter) and making a successful return to Hollywood filmmaking with the 1996 hit comedy Grumpier Old Men. In 1997, she collaborated with director Roger Hanin on the docudrama Soleil, co-starring Phillippe Noiret. In honor of her lengthy career, Sophia Loren was also the recipient of a special Oscar in 1991. Though film roles were few and far between into the 2000s, Loren proved she still had movie star charisma with a role in Chicago director Rob Marshall's Nine -- a lavish tribute to all things Italian. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

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Biography

The voluptuous Sophia Loren was among the most successful international stars of the postwar era -- not only did she rise to fame as a sex symbol, but she also won a measure of critical acclaim rarely afforded most of her foreign-born contemporaries. Born Sofia Scicolone in Rome on September 20, 1934, she and her single mother lived in abject poverty in the war-torn slums of Naples; at the age of 14 she began entering area beauty contests, later becoming a model and appearing in a number of uncredited bit parts in films. After winning a beauty contest in Rome, Loren was signed to a film contract by producer Carlo Ponti, who began grooming her for stardom by recruiting drama coaches and casting her in small movie roles, including an appearance in the 1951 smash Anna, under the name "Sofia Lazzaro." For 1952's La Favorita, her first larger role, Ponti changed her name to Sophia Loren, and with the following year's La Tratta Delle Bianche she earned third billing after Silvana Pampanini and Eleanora Rossi-Drago.

By the mid-'50s, Loren was a star in Italy as well as a major sex symbol, but with the exception of 1955's Attila Flagello di Dio, co-starring Anthony Quinn, few of her pictures were distributed internationally. That changed with Vittorio de Sica's L' Oro di Napoli, which was recut and dubbed for foreign sale, resulting in poor reviews; Loren, however, was singled out for the strength of her performance as a Neapolitan shopkeeper, surprising many critics who had dismissed her as merely another bombshell. As a result, 1955's La Donna del Fiume was distributed in both the U.S. and Britain, as were a number of other subsequent projects. Eventually, Loren emerged as an international star, and Ponti soon declared her ready for Hollywood; she moved tentatively into the English-language market with a pair of films shot in Europe, 1957's Boy on a Dolphin (in which she appeared opposite Alan Ladd) and The Pride and the Passion (starring Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant).

In 1957, Loren and Ponti were wed in Mexico; their marriage was a national scandal in Italy because Ponti had already been married once before, and a series of legal complications ensued -- one prominent Italian Catholic magazine even instructed readers to boycott her movies. In the meantime, Ponti orchestrated with Paramount a four-film contract for Loren's services, beginning with 1958's Desire Under the Elms. In Hollywood, her acting skills blossomed, and she won Best Actress honors at the 1959 Venice Film Festival for her work in Martin Ritt's drama The Black Orchid. However, she proved unable to draw audiences, a situation which her next film, George Cukor's idiosyncratic Western Heller in Pink Tights, failed to remedy. 1960's romantic comedy It Started in Naples, with Clark Gable, was Loren's commercial breakthrough, but Paramount had lost faith in her star power and cut her loose; she next traveled to Britain to film Anthony Asquith's The Millionairess.

Upon returning to Italy, Loren reunited with de Sica in 1961's La Ciociara, a wartime drama in which she starred as a widowed mother caught in a love triangle with her teen daughter (Eleanora Brown) and Jean-Paul Belmondo; containing by a brutal rape scene, the film won widespread acclaim, and Loren's gut-wrenching performance earned her an Academy Award, the first foreign-language performer to win the Best Actress prize; she was also so honored at the Cannes Film Festival. She next shot 1961's El Cid in Spain with Charlton Heston, followed by the de Sica episode of the anthology Boccaccio '70. On the strength of her Oscar win, she also returned to English-language fare with 1963's Five Miles to Midnight, followed a year later by The Fall of the Roman Empire; again her success was minimal, and she went back to the relative comforts of the Italian film industry for Ieri, Oggi, Domani and Matrimonio all'Italiana, both directed by de Sica and both co-starring Marcello Mastroianni.

In 1965, Ponti signed a production deal with MGM; a small role for Loren in Operation Crossbow and a larger part in Lady L were the results, followed by a series of films which cast her variously as a Jewish wife (1966's Judith), an Arab mistress (1966's Arabesque), and a former Russian prostitute (A Countess from Hong Kong). None of these projects were well-received, however, and after the failure of the fairy tale C'era una Volta and Questi Fantasmi, the Ponti/MGM deal ended unceremoniously. Despite her recent lack of success, Loren nevertheless remained a major talent, and in 1969 she even won a Golden Globe award as the world's most popular female star. Still, her popularity was not reflected by her box office totals; projects like de Sica's 1970 picture I Girasoli and 1971's La Moglie del Prete performed well in Italy, but played disastrously virtually everywhere else. Another return to Hollywood to appear in the musical The Man of La Mancha was also met with an icy reception.

Loren spent the majority of the mid-'70s exclusively in Italy, starring in de Sica's Il Viaggio and reuniting with Mastroianni in 1975's La Pupa del Gangster. When a dubbed version of 1977's Una Giornata Particolare found favor with American audiences, Hollywood again came calling, resulting in a pair of thrillers, 1978's The Brass Target and the next year's Firepower. Also in 1979, Loren penned her autobiography, Sophia Living and Loving: Her Own Story, and in 1980 played herself in a TV-movie based on the book. She did not reappear before the cameras for another four years, instead writing a beauty book and launching a perfume named in her honor; in the wake of 1984's Qualcosa di Biondo she appeared onscreen rarely, teaming with Mastroianni one last time in Robert Altman's 1994 film Ready to Wear (Pret-a-Porter) and making a successful return to Hollywood filmmaking with the 1996 hit comedy Grumpier Old Men. In honor of her lengthy career, Loren, Rovi

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