Sophia Loren

Sophia Loren (born September 20, 1934, Rome, Italy) Italian film actress who rose above her poverty-stricken origins in postwar Naples to become universally recognized as one of Italy’s most beautiful women and its most famous movie star.

Before working in the cinema, Sofia Scicolone changed her last name to Lazzaro for work in the fotoromanzi, popular pulp magazines that used still photographs to depict romantic stories. Her first film role was as an extra, one of many slave girls in the American production of Quo Vadis? (1951). Under the tutelage of producer Carlo Ponti (her future husband), Scicolone was transformed into Sophia Loren. Her career was launched in a series of low-budget comedies before she attracted critical and popular attention with Aida (1953), in which she lip-synched the singing of Renata Tebaldi in the title role.

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Loren’s beauty often overshadowed her enormous talents as an actress, but her earthy charisma is evident even in such early works as Vittorio De Sica’s L’oro di Napoli (1954; The Gold of Naples). With Ponti’s help, Loren increased her international visibility by appearing in Hollywood films opposite such major stars as Cary Grant (Houseboat, 1968), Clark Gable (It Started in Naples, 1960), Frank Sinatra (The Pride and the Passion, 1957, also with Grant), Alan Ladd (Boy on a Dolphin, 1957), William Holden (The Key, 1958), and Paul Newman (Lady L, 1965). Such exposure was undoubtedly instrumental in helping her win an Academy Award for best actress in De Sica’s La ciociara (1960; Two Women), in which she delivered a powerful performance as the courageous mother of a teenage girl during World War II.

Two other De Sica films showcased her comic talents and paired her with another Italian film icon, Marcello Mastroianni: Ieri, oggi, domani (1963; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow), a film that earned an Oscar for best foreign film; and Matrimonio all’italiana (1964; Marriage, Italian Style). The best performance of her late career, again with Mastroianni, was for director Ettore Scola in Una giornata particolare (1977, A Special Day). Loren’s subsequent work included the television movie Courage (1986) and the feature films Prêt-à-Porter (1994), which was directed by Robert Altman, and the musical Nine (2009). In 2010 she starred in the TV movie La mia casa è piena di specchi (My House Is Full of Mirrors), which was based on the autobiography of her sister, Maria Scicolone. Loren next appeared in Voce umana (2014; Human Voice), a short film based on a play by Jean Cocteau; it was directed by her son Edoardo Ponti. He also helmed La vita davanti a sé (2020; The Life Ahead), in which Loren starred as a Holocaust survivor who takes in a young refugee from Senegal.

International recognition for Loren’s distinguished acting career included a lifetime achievement Oscar (1991) and a career Golden Lion from the Venice Film Festival (1998). She also made headlines in the 1990s for her strong defense of animal rights. In 2010 she received the Japan Art Association’s Praemium Imperiale prize for theatre/film.