Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone (Italian:[soˈfiːavilˈlaːniʃʃikoˈloːne]; born 20 September 1934), known professionally asSophia Loren (/ləˈrɛn/lə-REN,[1]Italian:[ˈlɔːren]), is an Italian actress, active in her native country and the United States. With a career spanning over 70 years, she is one of the last surviving major stars from theGolden Age of Hollywood cinema.[2]
Encouraged to enroll in acting lessons after entering a beauty pageant, Loren began her film career at age 16 in 1950. She appeared in several bit parts and minor roles in the early part of the decade, until her five-picture contract withParamount in 1956 launched her international career. Her film appearances around this time includeThe Pride and the Passion,Houseboat, andIt Started in Naples. During the 1950s, she starred in films as a sexually emancipated persona and was one of the best knownsex symbols of the time.
Sofia Costanza Brigida Villani Scicolone was born on September 20, 1934, in the Clinica Regina Margherita inRome,[3] the daughter of Romilda Villani (1910–1991) and Riccardo Scicolone Murillo (1907–1976). Her mother was a piano teacher and aspiring actress, and her father a failed engineer who worked temporarily for the national railwayFerrovie dello Stato Italiane. Loren claimed in her autobiography that he was of noble descent, by virtue of which she is entitled to call herself "Viscountess ofPozzuoli, Lady ofCaserta, a title given by theHouse of Hohenstaufen,Marchioness of Licata Scicolone Murillo".[4]
Loren's father refused to marry her mother,[5] leaving her without financial support. Loren met her father three times, at age five, age seventeen and in 1976 at his deathbed, stating that she forgave him but had never forgotten his abandonment of her mother.[6][7] Loren's parents had another child together, her sisterMaria, in 1938. Scicolone did not want to formally recognise Maria as his daughter. When Loren became successful, she paid her father in order to have her sister Maria take the Scicolone last name.[8] Loren has two younger paternal half-brothers, Giuliano and Giuseppe.[9] Romilda, Sofia, and Maria lived with Loren's grandmother inPozzuoli, nearNaples.[10][11]
During theSecond World War, the harbour and munitions plant in Pozzuoli was a frequent bombing target of theAllies. During one raid, as Loren ran to the shelter, she was struck byshrapnel and wounded in the chin.[12] 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. Loren's grandmother Luisa opened a pub in their living room, selling homemade cherry liquor. Romilda played the piano, Maria sang, and Loren waited on tables and washed dishes. The place was popular with theAmerican GIs stationed nearby.[citation needed]
Loren, age 15, asSofia Lazzaro during a beauty pageant
Sofia participated in her first beauty pageant at the age of 15. "The Queen of the Sea" contest, organized by the newspaperCorriere di Napoli was held in Naples, on 2 October 1949.[13] She had travelled with her mother via train from Pozzuoli while wearing her pageant dress made by her grandmother out oftaffeta curtains. She was one of 12 girls to win a consolation prize as "princesses". The princesses along with the queen were paraded through the city streets in a carriage. The winnings included 23,000lire and a train ticket to Rome. Later, the train ticket would facilitate her and her mother's move to Rome in search of work atCinecittà.[14]
Also at age 15, Loren (asSofia Lazzaro) entered theMiss Italia 1950 beauty pageant and was assigned as Candidate No. 2, being one of the four contestants representing theLazio region. She was selected as one of the last three finalists and won the title of Miss Elegance 1950, while Liliana Cardinale won the title of Miss Cinema and Anna Maria Bugliari won the grand title of Miss Italia. She returned in 2001 as president of the jury for the 61st edition of the pageant. In 2010, Loren crowned the 71st Miss Italia pageant winner.[15][16]
Sofia was placed in a Neapolitan acting school by her mother who earned the money by teaching piano lessons. It was through the school's instructor, Pino Serpe, that Sophia obtained her first film roles. These were small, uncredited parts in films such asHearts at Sea (1950) andThe Vow (1950). Sophia and her mother relocated to Rome after learning that MGM was filming the epic filmQuo Vadis there and were looking for extras.[14]
Sofia Lazzaro enrolled in theCentro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, the national film school of Italy and appeared as an uncredited extra inMervyn LeRoy's 1951 filmQuo Vadis, when she was 16 years old.[17][18] She was noticed byMichal Waszysnki, who promoted her and helped her get her first significant role.[which?][19]That same year, Loren appeared in the Italian filmEra lui... sì! sì!, in which she played anodalisque, and was credited asSofia Lazzaro. In the early part of the decade, she played bit parts and had minor roles in several films, includingLa Favorita (1952).[20]
Carlo Ponti changed her name and public image to appeal to a wider audience asSophia Loren, being a twist on the name of the Swedish actressMärta Torén and suggested byGoffredo Lombardo. Her first starring role was inAida (1953), for which she received critical acclaim.[21]
In 1960, Loren starred inVittorio De Sica'sTwo Women, a stark, gritty story of a mother who is trying to protect her 12-year-old daughter in war-torn Italy. The two end up gang-raped inside a church as they travel back to their home city following cessation of bombings there. Originally cast as the daughter, Loren fought against type and was eventually cast as the mother (actressEleonora Brown would portray the daughter). Loren's performance earned her many awards, including theCannes Film Festival's best performance prize, and anAcademy Award for Best Actress, the first major Academy Award for a non-English-language performance or to an Italian actress. She won 22 international awards forTwo Women. The film was extremely well received by critics and a huge commercial success. Though proud of this accomplishment, Loren did not show up to this award, citing fear of fainting at the award ceremony. Nevertheless, Cary Grant telephoned her in Rome the next day to inform her of theOscar award.[22]
During the 1960s, Loren was one of the most popular actresses in the world, and continued to make films in the United States and Europe, starring with prominent leading men. In 1961 and 1964, her career reached its pinnacle when she received $1 million to appear inEl Cid andThe Fall of the Roman Empire. In 1965, she received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance inMarriage Italian-Style opposite Marcello Mastroianni.[23]
Loren appeared in fewer movies after becoming a mother in 1968. During the next decade, most of her roles were in Italian features. During the 1970s, she was paired withRichard Burton in the last De Sica-directed film,The Voyage (1974), and a remake of the filmBrief Encounter (1974). The film had its premiere on US television on 12 November 1974 as part of theHallmark Hall of Fame series on NBC. In 1976, she starred inThe Cassandra Crossing. It fared extremely well internationally, and was a respectable box office success in the US market. She co-starred withMarcello Mastroianni again inEttore Scola'sA Special Day (1977). This movie was nominated for 11 international awards such as two Oscars (best actor in leading role, best foreign picture). It won a Golden Globe Award and a César Award for best foreign movie. Loren's performance was awarded with a David di Donatello Award, the seventh in her career. The movie was extremely well received by American reviewers.Following this success, Loren starred in an American thrillerBrass Target. This movie received mixed reviews, although it was moderately successful in the United States and internationally. In 1978, she won her fourth Golden Globe for "world film favorite". Other movies of this decade were Academy Award nomineeSunflower (1970), which was a critical success, and Arthur Hiller'sMan of La Mancha (1972), which was a critical and commercial failure despite being nominated for several awards, including two Golden Globes.Peter O'Toole andJames Coco were nominated for two NBR awards, in addition theNBR listedMan of La Mancha in its best ten pictures of 1972 list.[21] Loren headlined the action thrillerFirepower (1979) co-starringJames Coburn andO. J. Simpson, whom she had previously worked with onThe Cassandra Crossing.
Loren in 1979
In 1980, after the international success of the biographySophia Loren: Living and Loving, Her Own Story byA. E. Hotchner, Loren portrayed herself and her mother in a made-for-television biographical film adaptation of her autobiography,Sophia Loren: Her Own Story. Ritza Brown and Chiara Ferrari each portrayed the younger Loren. In 1981, she became the first female celebrity to launch her own perfume, 'Sophia', and a brand of eyewear soon followed.[21]
Loren acted infrequently during the 1980s, preferring to devote more time to raising her sons.[25][26] In 1981 she turned down the role ofAlexis Carrington in the television seriesDynasty. Although she was set to star in 13 episodes of CBS'sFalcon Crest in 1984 as Angela Channing's half-sister Francesca Gioberti, negotiations fell through at the last moment and the role went toGina Lollobrigida instead. She played the title role in the 1984 TV movieAurora, in which she acted alongside her 11-year-old real-life sonEdoardo Ponti.
Loren has recorded more than two dozen songs throughout her career, including a best-selling album of comedic songs withPeter Sellers; reportedly, she had to fend off his romantic advances. Partly owing to Sellers's infatuation with Loren, he split with his first wife, Anne Howe. Loren has made it clear to numerous biographers that Sellers's affections were reciprocated onlyplatonically. This collaboration was covered inThe Life and Death of Peter Sellers where actressSonia Aquino portrayed Loren. The song "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)?" byPeter Sarstedt was said to have been inspired by Loren.[27][28]
She presentedFederico Fellini with his honorary Oscar in April 1993. In 2009, Loren stated onLarry King Live that Fellini had planned to direct her in a film shortly before his death in 1993.[30] Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Loren was selective about choosing her films and ventured into various areas of business, including cookbooks, eyewear, jewelry, and perfume. She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance inRobert Altman's filmReady to Wear (1994), co-starringJulia Roberts.
In 2009, after five years off the set and 14 years since she starred in a prominent US theatrical film, Loren starred inRob Marshall's film version ofNine, based on theBroadway 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 for the role. The film also starsDaniel Day-Lewis,Penélope Cruz,Kate Hudson,Marion Cotillard, andNicole Kidman. As a part of the cast, she received her first nomination for aScreen Actors Guild Award.
In 2010, Loren played her own mother in a two-part Italian television miniseries about her early life, directed by Vittorio Sindoni withMargareth Madè as Loren, entitledLa mia casa è piena di specchi (My House Is Full of Mirrors [it]), based on the memoir by her sister Maria. In July 2013 Loren made her film comeback in an Italian short-film adaptation ofJean Cocteau's 1930 playThe Human Voice (La voce umana), which charts the breakdown of a woman who is left by her lover – with her younger son,Edoardo Ponti, as director. Filming took under a month during July in various locations in Italy, including Rome and Naples. It was Loren's first theatrical film sinceNine.[35] She returned to feature-length film, asHolocaust survivor Madame Rosa, in Ponti's 2020 feature filmThe Life Ahead. In 2021 she receivedAARP Best Actress andAWFJ Grand Dame awards for her role.[36] After turning 90 in September 2024, despite having been inactive since the release ofThe Life Ahead, Loren dismissed rumors about her retirement and expressed her hopes to star in new productions.[37]
Loren first metCarlo Ponti in 1950, when she was 15 and he was 37, and they soon began an affair. Sincedivorce was not permitted in Italian law at the time, Ponti was not legally divorced from his wife, Giuliana Fiastri, when Loren married him by proxy (two male lawyers stood in for them) in Mexico on 17 September 1957.[53] The couple had their marriage annulled in 1962 to escapebigamy charges, but continued to live together. In 1965, they became French citizens after their application was approved by then French Prime MinisterGeorges Pompidou.[53] Ponti then obtained a divorce from Giuliana in France, allowing him to marry Loren on 9 April 1966.[54] The marriage lasted until Ponti's death on 10 January 2007 from pulmonary complications, aged 94.[55]
Loren andCary Grant co-starred inHouseboat (1958). Grant's wifeBetsy Drake wrote the original script, and Grant originally intended that Drake would star with him. After he began anaffair with Loren while filmingThe Pride and the Passion (1957), Grant arranged for Loren to take Drake's place with a rewritten script for which Drake asked not to receive credit. The affair ended in bitterness beforeThe Pride and the Passion's filming ended, causing problems on theHouseboat set. Grant hoped to resume the relationship, but Loren decided to marry Carlo Ponti instead.[62]
In 1982, while in Italy, Loren made headlines after serving 17 days in prison ontax evasion charges. Loren said her accountant had made a mistake on her tax return. The matter did not hamper her popularity or career. In 2013, theSupreme Court of Italy cleared her of the charges in a separate decades-long dispute over the tax she should have paid on her 1974 earnings.[63]
In September 1999, Loren filed a lawsuit against 79 adult websites for posting altered nude photos of her on the internet.[64][65]
Prokofiev –Pedro y el lobo, Jean-Pascal Beintus – Las Huellas del Lobo.Antonio Banderas, Sophia Loren, Russian National Orchestra – Kent Nagano. Pentatone PTC 5186014 (2004).
^Leslie, Roger (2017).Oscar's Favorite Actors: The Winningest Stars (and More Who Should Be). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. p. 277.ISBN9781476669564.
_(cropped).jpg)
_italienische_Filmschauspielerin.png)
_(cropped).jpg)
