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Sophia Loren (born September 20, 1934) is
considered to be the most famous Italy|Italian
actress of all time and, at the age of 70,
continues to be a top sex symbol.
 
She was born Sofia Villani Scicolone in Rome,
Italy, the illegitimate daughter of aspiring
actress and piano teacher Romilda Villani and
married engineer Riccardo Scicolone and grew up in
poverty in wartime Pozzuoli near Naples.

Loren began her film career in the early 1950s
playing bit parts in mostly minor Italian films,
but she had an early brush with Hollywood in 1951
when she and her mother worked as extras in the
blockbuster Quo Vadis (1951 movie)|Quo Vadis,
which was filmed in Rome. Around this time, she
also worked as a model in the fotoromanzi (weekly
illustrated romantic stories) billed as "Sofia
Villani" or "Sofia Lazzaro' and took part in
regional beauty contests, were she won several
prizes and was discovered by her future husband,
film producer Carlo Ponti.

Under Ponti's management, Sophia Scicolone changed
her name to Sophia Loren and, after more early
film roles that emphasized her voluptuous physique
(she even appeared topless in the films Two Nights
with Cleopatra and It's Him, Yes! Yes!), her
acting career took off upon meeting Vittorio De
Sica and Marcello Mastroianni in 1954.

By the second half of the 1950s, her star began 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 Frank Sinatra and Cary
Grant, the latter to whom she became romantically
attracted for a time). Loren became an
international film star with a five-picture
contract with Paramount Studios. Among her films
at this time: Desire Under the Elms with Anthony
Perkins (based upon the Eugene O'Neill play),
Houseboat (movie)|Houseboat (a romantic comedy
again co-starring Cary Grant), and George Cukor's
Heller in Pink Tights (in which she appeared
blonde for the first time in her career).

In spite of her status as a love goddess and major
sex symbol, Loren demonstrated considerable
dramatic skills and gained respect as a dramatic
and comedy actress, especially in Italian projects
where she more freely expressed herself, although
she gained profiency in the English language. In
1960, her acclaimed performance in Vittorio De
Sica's Two Women earned her a multitude of awards
and, along with the Cannes, Venezia and Berlin
festivals' best performance prizes, the
distinction of being the first actor to win a
major category Academy Award (Best Actress) for a
non-English language performance.

During the 1960s Loren was one of the most popular
actresses in the world, and continued to make
popular films in both America and in Europe,
acting with all the leading male stars of the
time. In 1964 her career came, to an effect, full
circle when she received $1 million to join the
all-star cast of The Fall of the Roman Empire
(movie)|The Fall of the Roman Empire, directed by
the same man who had directed Quo Vadis early in
her career.  Some of her best-known films of this
period are Peter Ustinov's Lady L with Paul
Newman, Charles Chaplin's final film, A Countess
from Hong Kong with Marlon Brando, and The
Millionairess with Peter Sellers, with whom she
recorded a best-selling album of comedic songs and
also reportedly from whom she had to fend off
romantic advances.

After becoming a mother of two sons her career
slowed down and Loren moved into her 40s and 50s
gracefully mantaining her status as a fine
dramatic actress and a perenial sex symbol, with
acclaimed roles in films such as the last De Sica
movie, The Voyage, with Richard Burton
(actor)|Richard Burton and Ettore Scola's A
Special Day with Mastroianni. 

In 1980, she had the rare privilege of portraying
herself (as well as her own mother) in a
made-for-television biopic adaptation of her
autobiography bestseller Sophia: Living and Loving
titled Sophia Loren: Her Own Story. (Rita Brown
and Chiara Ferrari played younger versions of the
actress. 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 was selective in her films and
ventured into various areas of business (cook
books, eyewear, jewelery and perfume - Loren was
the first movie star to launch a personal
fragrance) but made very well-received appearances
in Robert Altman's Ready to Wear and the 1994
comedy Grumpier Old Men playing a femme fatale
opposite Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon. 

In 1991, Loren received an honorary Academy Award
for her contribution to world cinema and was
declared "one of the world cinema's treasures".

Sophia Loren was portrayed by Sonia Aquino in the
2004 biopic The Life and Death of Peter Sellers,
as well as by Silvia Vrij in a 1980 film entitled
Dirty Picture.

== Notes ==
* Received an Academy Award|Oscar for Best Actress
for the 1960 film Two Women.
* Often appeared in film with Marcello Mastroianni
* Her childhood nickname: "Toothpick"
* Other notable film roles were: Jimena (Charlton
Heston's love interest) in El Cid; Lucilla in The
Fall of the Roman Empire (movie)|The Fall of the
Roman Empire with Alec Guinness; and
Aldonza/Dulcinea in Man of La Mancha with Peter
O'Toole.

==Filmography==
*The Ballot (1950)
*Toto Tarzan (1950)
*The Six Wives of Barbablu (1950)
*I Am the Captain (1950)
*Hearts at Sea (1950)
*The Master of Vapor (1951)
*Milano Miliardaria (1951)
*The Wizard by Force (1951)
*Brief Rapture (1951)
*Quo Vadis (1951)
*It's Him!... Yes! Yes! (1951)
*Anna (1951)
*The Dream of Zorro (1952)
*The Favorite (1952)
*The Piano Tuner Has Arrived (1952)
*Girls Marked Danger (1953)
*Pilgrims of Love (1953)
*The Country of the Campanelli (1953)
*Two Nights with Cleopatra (1953)
*Good Folk's Sunday (1953)
*We Find Ourselves in Galleries (1953)
*Aida (1953)
*Africa Under the Seas (1953)
*A Day in Court (1954)
*Neapolitan Carousel (1954)
*The Anatomy of Love (1954)
*Poverty and Nobility (1954)
*The Gold of Naples (1954)
*Attila (1954)
*Scandal in Sorrento (1955)
*The Sign of Venus (1955)
*The Miller's Beautiful Wife (1955)
*The River Girl (1955)
*Too Bad She's Bad (1955)
*Lucky to Be a Woman (1956)
*Boy on a Dolphin (1957)
*The Pride and the Passion (1957)
*Legend of the Lost (1957)
*Desire Under the Elms (1958)
*The Key (1958)
*The Black Orchid (1958)
*Houseboat (1958)
*That Kind of Woman (1959)
*The Millionairess (1960)
*Heller in Pink Tights (1960)
*It Started in Naples (1960)
*A Breath of Scandal (1960)
*Two Women (1960)
*El Cid (1961)
*Boccaccio '70 (1962)
*Lykke og krone (1962) (documentary)
*Madame Sens-Gene (1962)
*The Condemned of Altona (1962)
*Five Miles to Midnight (1962)
*Showman (1963) (documentary)
*Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow (1963)
*Visit to the Stars (1964) (short subject)
*The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
*Marriage - Italian Style (1964)
*Operation Crossbow (1965)
*Lady L (1965)
*Judith (1966)
*Arabesque (1966)
*A Countess from Hong Kong (1967)
*More Than a Miracle (1967)
*Ghosts - Italian Style (1968)
*Sunflower (1970)
*Lady Liberty (1971)
*The Priest's Wife (1971)
*White Sister (1972)
*Man of La Mancha (1972)
*The Voyage (1974)
*Verdict (1974)
*Oopsie Poopsie (1975)
*The Cassandra Crossing (1976)
*A Special Day (1977)
*Angela (1978)
*Blood Feud (1978)
*Brass Target (1979)
*Firepower (1979)
*Aurora by Night (1984)
*Ready to Wear (1994)
*Grumpier Old Men (1995)
*Soleil (1997)
*Between Strangers (2002)
*Capsicum Fillings and Fish in the Face (2004)
*Friday or Another Day (2005) (currently in
post-production)

== External links ==
Wikiquote
*http://www.sophialoren.com/ Official website
*imdb name | id=0000047 | name=Sophia Loren
*http://www.geocities.com/loren_sophia/
*http://www.divasthesite.com/Acting_Divas/Sophia_L
oren.htm