Sophia Loren
Overview
Sophia Loren, OMRI
(born Sofia Villani Scicolone; 20 September 1934) is an Italian actress.
In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress
for her role in Two Women
, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance. Loren has won 50 international awards, including two Oscars, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award
, a BAFTA Award and a Laurel Award
.
Omri
Omri was a king of Israel, successful military campaigner and first in the line of Omride kings that included Ahab, Ahaziah and Joram.He was "commander of the army" of king Elah when Zimri murdered Elah and made himself king. Instead, the troops at Gibbethon chose Omri as king, and he led them to...
(born Sofia Villani Scicolone; 20 September 1934) is an Italian actress.
In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her role in Two Women
Two Women
Two Women is a 1960 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown, Carlo Ninchi and Andrea Checchi...
, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance. Loren has won 50 international awards, including two Oscars, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
, a BAFTA Award and a Laurel Award
Laurel Awards
The Laurel Awards were cinema awards to honor pictures, actors, actresses, directors and composers. This award was created by Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine, and ran from 1958 to 1968, then 1970 and 1971....
.
Unanswered Questions
Quotations
I've never tried to block out the memories of the past, even though some are painful. I don't understand people who hide from their past. Everything you live through helps to make you the person you are now.
As quoted in Valentines & Vitriol (1977) by Rex Reed|Rex Reed
I was not intrigued with the accouterments of success and fame, the furs, jewels, expensive automobiles and mansions... I can assure you that these things were not on my mind when I sat spellbound in that Pozzuoli movie house. It was what these performers on the screen were doing, not what they received for doing it.
As quoted in Sophia, Living and Loving: Her Own Story (1979) by A. E. Hotchner, p. 63
I was blessed with a sense of my own destiny. I have never sold myself short. I have never judged myself by other people’s standards. I have always expected a great deal of myself, and if I fail, I fail myself. So failure or reversal does not bring out resentment in me because I cannot blame others for any misfortune that befalls me.
As quoted in Sophia, Living and Loving: Her Own Story (1979) by A. E. Hotchner, p. 76
My philosophy is that it's better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe and not to explore at all.
As quoted in Sophia, Living and Loving: Her Own Story (1979) by A. E. Hotchner, p. 239
A woman's dress should be like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.
Quoted on Good Morning, America ABC TV (10 August 1979)
Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.
As quoted in Morrow's International Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations (1982) by Jonathon Green, p. 340
Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got.
As quoted in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984) Leslie Halliwell
Nothing makes a woman more beautiful than the belief that she is beautiful.
As quoted in The Subtlety of Emotions (2001) by Aaron Ben-Ze'ev, p. 204
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 this source, you will have truly defeated age.
As quoted in Hope Notes : 52 Meditations to Nudge Your World (2004) by Wayne Willis, p. 11
Being beautiful can never hurt, but you have to have more. You have to sparkle, you have to be fun, you have to make your brain work if you have one.
As quoted in Bombshell (2004) by Lynda Curnyn, p. 196
Encyclopedia
Sophia Loren, OMRI
(born Sofia Villani Scicolone; 20 September 1934) is an Italian actress.
In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress
for her role in Two Women
, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance. Loren has won 50 international awards, including two Oscars, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award
, a BAFTA Award and a Laurel Award
. Her other films include: Houseboat
(1958), El Cid
(1961), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963), Marriage Italian-Style
(1964), and A Special Day
(1977). She has received critical and commercial success in movies for home box-office such as Courage
(1986) and in American
blockbusters such as Grumpier Old Men
(1995), and Nine
(2009). In 1994 she starred in Robert Altman's Ready to Wear
, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination in 1995. The same year she received the Cecil B. DeMille
Award for lifetime achievements.
In 1999, Loren was listed by the American Film Institute
on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars
as #21 of 25 American female screen legends of all time. In 2002, she was honored by the National Italian American Foundation
(NIAF) at its annual Anniversary Gala and was inducted into its Italian American Hall of Fame. In 2009, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized her as "Italy's Most Awarded Actress".
In 1991, the Republic of France
awarded her a Distinction of la Légion d'honneur (the Legion of Honor) with the grade of Chevalier
(Knight
). In 1994, she was awarded with the Honorary Golden Bear
at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival
. In 1997, Loren was invested Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Knight Grand Cross
of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
). In 2010, she was awarded the Praemium Imperiale
by the Imperial Family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Art Association.
, daughter of Romilda Villani (1914–1991) and Riccardo Scicolone, a construction engineer. Scicolone refused to marry Villani, leaving her, a piano teacher and aspiring actress, without support. Loren's parents had another child together, her sister Anna Maria Villani Scicolone
, in 1938. Loren has two younger paternal half-brothers, Giuliano and Giuseppe. Romilda, Loren, and Maria lived with Loren's grandmother in Pozzuoli, near Naples, to survive.
During World War II
, the harbour 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. 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. Grandmother Luisa opened a pub in their living room, selling homemade cherry liquor. Villani played the piano, Maria sang and Loren waited on 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 Mervyn LeRoy
's 1951 film Quo Vadis
, launching her career as a motion picture actress.
(1953), for which she received critical acclaim. After playing the lead role in Two Nights with Cleopatra
(1953), her breakthrough role was in The Gold of Naples
(1954), directed by Vittorio De Sica
. Too Bad She's Bad
, also released in 1954, became the first of many films in which Loren co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni
. Over the next three years she acted in many films such as Scandal in Sorrento (1955) and Lucky to Be a Woman
(1956). In 1957, Loren's star had begun to rise in Hollywood, with the films Boy on a Dolphin
(her U.S. film debut), Legend of the Lost
with John Wayne
, and The Pride and the Passion
in which she starred opposite Cary Grant
and Frank Sinatra
.
Loren became an international film star with a five-picture contract with Paramount Pictures
in 1958. Among her films at this time were 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 as a blonde for the first time.
In 1961, she starred in Vittorio De Sica
's Two Women
, a stark, gritty story of a mother who is raped while trying to protect her daughter in war-torn Italy. Originally cast as the daughter, Loren fought against type and was re-cast as the mother (actress Eleonora Brown
would portray the daughter). Loren's performance earned her many awards, including the Cannes Film Festival
's best performance prize, and an Academy Award for Best Actress
, the first major Academy Award for a non-English-language performance and to an Italian actress. She won 22 international awards for Two Women. The film proved to be extremely well accepted by the critics and it was a huge commercial success.
Loren is 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." However, on the 20 December 2009, episode of CBS News Sunday Morning
, Loren denied ever saying the line.
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
. In 1965, she received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance in Marriage Italian-Style
.
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
(1960) with Clark Gable
, Vittorio De Sica's triptych Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
(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
.
Loren received four Golden Globe Awards between 1964 and 1977 as "World Film Favorite - Female."
(1974), and a remake of the film Brief Encounter
(1974). In 1976 she starred in The Cassandra Crossing
, a disaster film
featuring such veteran stars as Richard Harris
, Martin Sheen
, and Ava Gardner
. She also co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni in Ettore Scola's A Special Day
(1977), an Italian film for which she was nominated for several awards. Loren then starred in the Hollywood thrillers Brass Target
(1978), set during World War II, and Firepower (1979), that had a moderate success.
In 1980, Loren portrayed herself, as well as her mother, in a made-for-television biopic adaptation of her autobiography titled Sophia Loren: Her Own Story. Actresses Ritza Brown and Chiara Ferrari played Loren at younger ages. In 1981, she became the first female celebrity to launch her own perfume, Sophia, and a brand of eyewear followed soon thereafter. 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 fact, Bill Moore, then employed at Pickle Packers International advertising department, sent her a pink pickle-shaped trophy for being "the prettiest lady in the prettiest pickle". She acted infrequently during the 1980s and turned down the role of Alexis Carrington in 1981 on the TV series Dynasty
and although she was set to star in thirteen episodes of CBS' Falcon Crest
in 1984 as Angela Channing's half-sister Francesca Gioberti, negotiations fell through at the last moment and the role instead went to Gina Lollobrigida
. Sophia, preferring to devote more time to raising her sons. In 1988 she starred in the miniseries The Fortunate Pilgrim
.
Loren has 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.
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
.
She presented Federico Fellini
with his Honorary Oscar. In 2009 Loren stated on Larry King Live
that Fellini had planned to direct her in a film shortly before his death in 1993.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Loren was selective about choosing her films and ventured into various areas of business, including cook books, eyewear, jewellery and perfume.
She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Robert Altman
's film Ready to Wear
(1994), co-starring Julia Roberts
.
In the comedy Grumpier Old Men
(1995), Loren played a femme fatale
opposite Walter Matthau
, Jack Lemmon
, and Ann-Margret
. The film was a box-office success and became Loren's biggest U.S hit in years.
In 2001, Loren received a Special Grand Prix of the Americas Award at the Montreal World Film Festival
for her body of work. She filmed two projects in Canada during this time: the independent film Between Strangers
(2002), directed by her son Edoardo and co-starring Mira Sorvino
, and the television miniseries Lives of the Saints
(2004).
In 2009, after five years off the set and fourteen years since she starred in a prominent US theatrical film, Loren starred 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 and only choice for the role. The film also stars Daniel Day-Lewis
, Penelope Cruz
, Kate Hudson
, Marion Cotillard
, and Nicole Kidman
. As a part of the cast she received her first nomination for a Screen 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, entitled La Mia Casa È Piena di Specchi (translated My House Is Full of Mirrors), based on the memoir written by her sister Maria.
, Switzerland
since late 2006. She also owns homes in Naples
and Rome
In September 1999, Loren filed a lawsuit against 76 adult websites for posting altered nude photos of her on the internet.
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 the team won.
Loren posed scantily-clad at 72 for the 2007 Pirelli Calendar
along with such actresses as Penelope Cruz
and Hilary Swank
.
in 1950 when she was 15 and he was 37. They married on 17 September 1957. However, Ponti was still officially married to his first wife Giuliana under Italian law because Italy did not recognize divorce at that time. The couple had their marriage annulled in 1962 to escape bigamy
charges. In 1965, Ponti obtained a divorce from Giuliana in France, allowing him to marry Loren on 9 April 1966. They later became French citizens after their application was approved by then French President Georges Pompidou
.
The couple had two sons: Carlo Ponti Jr.
(born 29 December 1968) and Edoardo Ponti
(born 6 January 1973).
Loren remained married to Carlo Ponti until his death on 10 January 2007 of pulmonary complications.
When asked in a November 2009 interview if she is ever likely to marry again, Loren replied "No, never again. It would be impossible to love anyone else."
Her daughters-in-law are Sasha Alexander
and Andrea Meszaros. Loren has three grandchildren: Lucia Ponti (born 12 May 2006), Vittorio Ponti (born 3 April 2007). and Leonardo Fortunato (born 20 December 2010).
Omri
Omri was a king of Israel, successful military campaigner and first in the line of Omride kings that included Ahab, Ahaziah and Joram.He was "commander of the army" of king Elah when Zimri murdered Elah and made himself king. Instead, the troops at Gibbethon chose Omri as king, and he led them to...
(born Sofia Villani Scicolone; 20 September 1934) is an Italian actress.
In 1962, Loren won the Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for her role in Two Women
Two Women
Two Women is a 1960 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown, Carlo Ninchi and Andrea Checchi...
, along with 21 awards, becoming the first actress to win an Academy Award for a non-English-speaking performance. Loren has won 50 international awards, including two Oscars, seven Golden Globe Awards, a Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
, a BAFTA Award and a Laurel Award
Laurel Awards
The Laurel Awards were cinema awards to honor pictures, actors, actresses, directors and composers. This award was created by Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine, and ran from 1958 to 1968, then 1970 and 1971....
. Her other films include: Houseboat
Houseboat (film)
Houseboat is a 1958 romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer, Paul Petersen, Charles Herbert and Mimi Gibson. The movie was directed by Melville Shavelson, who also directed the original 1968 version of Yours, Mine and Ours....
(1958), El Cid
El Cid (film)
El Cid is a historical epic film, a romanticized story of the life of the Christian Castilian knight Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called "El Cid" who in the 11th century fought the North African Almoravides and ultimately contributed to the unification of Spain.Made by Samuel Bronston Productions in...
(1961), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963), Marriage Italian-Style
Marriage Italian-Style
Marriage Italian-Style is a 1964 film which tells the story of a successful businessman who kept a woman as his mistress for several years and now plans to marry another woman until his mistress pretends to be on her deathbed to induce him to marry her before she dies...
(1964), and A Special Day
A Special Day
A Special Day is a 1977 Italian language film which tells the story of a housewife and her neighbor who stay at home in Rome on the day that Adolf Hitler visits Benito Mussolini. It stars Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni and John Vernon, and was directed by Ettore Scola. The film was a...
(1977). She has received critical and commercial success in movies for home box-office such as Courage
Courage
Courage is the ability to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation...
(1986) and in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
blockbusters such as Grumpier Old Men
Grumpier Old Men
Grumpier Old Men is a 1995 romantic comedy film, and a sequel to the 1993 film Grumpy Old Men. The film stars Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, and Sophia Loren, with Burgess Meredith, Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Katie Sagona, Ann Morgan Guilbert...
(1995), and Nine
Nine (film)
Nine is a 2009 musical-romantic film directed and produced by Rob Marshall. The screenplay, written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, is based on Arthur Kopit's book for the 1982 musical of the same name, which was itself suggested by Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½...
(2009). In 1994 she starred in Robert Altman's Ready to Wear
Prêt-à-Porter (film)
Prêt-à-Porter is a 1994 American satirical black comedy film co-written, directed, and produced by Robert Altman and shot during the Paris, France, Fashion Week with a host of international stars, models and designers...
, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination in 1995. The same year she received the Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
Award for lifetime achievements.
In 1999, Loren was listed by the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Stars
Part of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars is a list of the top 50 greatest screen legends of American cinema, 25 male and 25 female...
as #21 of 25 American female screen legends of all time. In 2002, she was honored by the National Italian American Foundation
National Italian American Foundation
The National Italian American Foundation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, educational foundation that promotes Italian American culture and heritage...
(NIAF) at its annual Anniversary Gala and was inducted into its Italian American Hall of Fame. In 2009, the Guinness Book of World Records recognized her as "Italy's Most Awarded Actress".
In 1991, the Republic of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
awarded her a Distinction of la Légion d'honneur (the Legion of Honor) with the grade of Chevalier
Chevalier
Chevalier is a class of membership in a French Order of Chivalry or order of merit.* a member of the Ordre National du Mérite* a rank in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres* a rank in the Legion d'honneur* a member of the Order of Palmes académiques...
(Knight
Knight
A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....
). In 1994, she was awarded with the Honorary Golden Bear
Golden Bear
According to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
at the 44th Berlin International Film Festival
44th Berlin International Film Festival
The 44th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 10 to 21, 1994.-Jury:* Jeremy Thomas * Chinghiz Aitmatov* María Luisa Bemberg* Hsu Feng* Morgan Freeman* Francis Girod* Corinna Harfouch* Carlo Lizzani...
. In 1997, Loren was invested Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana (Knight Grand Cross
Knight Grand Cross
Knight Grand Cross is the most senior grade of seven British orders of chivalry, three of which are obsolete. The rank entails admission into knighthood, allowing the recipient to use the title 'Sir' or 'Dame' before his or her name...
of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
The Order of Merit of the Italian Republic was founded as the senior order of knighthood by the second President of the Italian Republic, Luigi Einaudi in 1951...
). In 2010, she was awarded the Praemium Imperiale
Praemium Imperiale
The Praemium Imperiale is an arts prize awarded since 1989 by the imperial family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Art Association in the fields painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and theatre/film...
by the Imperial Family of Japan on behalf of the Japan Art Association.
Early life
Loren was born in the Clinica Regina Margherita in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, daughter of Romilda Villani (1914–1991) and Riccardo Scicolone, a construction engineer. Scicolone refused to marry Villani, leaving her, a piano teacher and aspiring actress, without support. Loren's parents had another child together, her sister Anna Maria Villani Scicolone
Anna Maria Villani Scicolone
Anna Maria Villani Scicolone is the divorced wife of Romano Mussolini who was the youngest son of Benito Mussolini, fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943...
, in 1938. Loren has two younger paternal half-brothers, Giuliano and Giuseppe. Romilda, Loren, and Maria lived with Loren's grandmother in Pozzuoli, near Naples, to survive.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the harbour 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. 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. Grandmother Luisa opened a pub in their living room, selling homemade cherry liquor. Villani played the piano, Maria sang and Loren waited on 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 Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy
Mervyn LeRoy was an American film director, producer and sometime actor.-Early life:Born to Jewish parents in San Francisco, California, his family was financially ruined by the 1906 earthquake...
's 1951 film Quo Vadis
Quo Vadis (1951 film)
Quo Vadis is a 1951 epic film made by MGM. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist, from a screenplay by John Lee Mahin, S. N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, adapted from Henryk Sienkiewicz's classic 1896 novel Quo Vadis. The music score was by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography...
, launching her career as a motion picture actress.
Beginnings
After being credited professionally as Sofia Lazzaro, she began using her current stage name in 1952's La Favorita. Her first starring role was in AidaAida (1953 film)
Aida is a 1953 Italian film version of the opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi. It was directed by Clemente Fracassi and produced by Gregor Rabinovitch and Federico Teti. The screenplay was adapted by Fracassi, Carlo Castelli, Anna Gobbi and Giorgio Salviucci from the libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni...
(1953), for which she received critical acclaim. After playing the lead role in Two Nights with Cleopatra
Two Nights with Cleopatra
Two Nights with Cleopatra is a 1953 comedy film directed by Mario Mattoli and starring Sophia Loren.-Cast:* Sophia Loren - Cleopatra / Nisca* Alberto Sordi - Cesarino* Ettore Manni - Marcantonio* Paul Muller - Tortul...
(1953), her breakthrough role was in The Gold of Naples
The Gold of Naples
The Gold of Naples is a 1954 Italian comedy film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It was entered into the 1955 Cannes Film Festival.-Plot:The film is a tribute to Naples, where director De Sica spent his first years, this is a collection of 6 Neapolitan episodes: a clown exploited by a hoodlum; an...
(1954), directed by Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....
. Too Bad She's Bad
Too Bad She's Bad
Too Bad She's Bad is a 1954 Italian comedy directed by Alessandro Blasetti. It stars Sophia Loren and is based on Alberto Moravia's story, Fanatico, from his Racconti Romani.-Cast:* Vittorio De Sica - Vittorio Stroppiani...
, also released in 1954, became the first of many films in which Loren co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Mastroianni
Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni, Knight Grand Cross was an Italian film actor. His honours included British Film Academy Awards, Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival and two Golden Globe Awards.- Personal life :...
. Over the next three years she acted in many films such as Scandal in Sorrento (1955) and Lucky to Be a Woman
Lucky to Be a Woman
Lucky to Be a Woman is a 1956 Italian comedy film directed by Alessandro Blasetti starring Sophia Loren and Charles Boyer.-Cast:* Sophia Loren - Antonietta Fallari* Charles Boyer - Count Gregorio Sennetti* Marcello Mastroianni - Corrado Betti...
(1956). In 1957, Loren's star had begun to rise in Hollywood, with the films Boy on a Dolphin
Boy on a Dolphin
Boy on a Dolphin is a 1957 20th Century Fox romantic film set in Greece and made in CinemaScope. It was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Samuel G. Engel from a screenplay by Ivan Moffat and Dwight Taylor, based on the novel by David Divine....
(her U.S. film debut), Legend of the Lost
Legend of the Lost
Legend of the Lost is a 1957 Italy/U.S. adventure film starring John Wayne, Sophia Loren, and Rossano Brazzi. The location shooting for the film took place near Tripoli, Libya.-Plot:...
with John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
, and The Pride and the Passion
The Pride and the Passion
The Pride and the Passion is a historical film drama starring Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra and Sophia Loren made by Stanley Kramer Productions. Set in the Napoleonic era, it is the story of a British officer who has orders to retrieve a huge cannon from Spain and take it to the British forces by ship...
in which she starred opposite Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
and Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
.
International fame
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
in 1958. Among her films at this time were Desire Under the Elms
Desire Under the Elms (film)
Desire Under the Elms is a 1958 American film version of the 1924 play Desire Under the Elms written by Eugene O'Neill. The film was directed by Delbert Mann from a screenplay by O'Neill and Irwin Shaw. The cast included Sophia Loren as Abbie , Anthony Perkins as Eben, Burl Ives as Ephraim, Frank...
with Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins
Anthony Perkins was an American actor, best known for his Oscar-nominated role in Friendly Persuasion and as Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho , and its three sequels.-Early life:...
, based upon the Eugene O'Neill
Eugene O'Neill
Eugene Gladstone O'Neill was an American playwright and Nobel laureate in Literature. His poetically titled plays were among the first to introduce into American drama techniques of realism earlier associated with Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and Swedish...
play; Houseboat
Houseboat (film)
Houseboat is a 1958 romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer, Paul Petersen, Charles Herbert and Mimi Gibson. The movie was directed by Melville Shavelson, who also directed the original 1968 version of Yours, Mine and Ours....
, a romantic comedy co-starring Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
; and George Cukor
George Cukor
George Dewey Cukor was an American film director. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO and later MGM, where he directed What Price Hollywood? , A Bill of Divorcement , Dinner at Eight , Little Women , David Copperfield , Romeo and Juliet and...
's Heller in Pink Tights
Heller in Pink Tights
Heller In Pink Tights is a 1960 Technicolor western film adapted from Louis L'Amour's novel, Heller with a Gun. It stars Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn and was directed by George Cukor....
, in which she appeared as a blonde for the first time.
In 1961, she starred in Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio de Sica
Vittorio De Sica was an Italian director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement....
's Two Women
Two Women
Two Women is a 1960 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown, Carlo Ninchi and Andrea Checchi...
, a stark, gritty story of a mother who is raped while trying to protect her daughter in war-torn Italy. Originally cast as the daughter, Loren fought against type and was re-cast as the mother (actress Eleonora Brown
Eleonora Brown
Eleonora Brown was an actress in Italian films in the 1960s. She started at age thirteen as Sophia Loren's daughter in Two Women. She is a 1982 graduate of John Cabot University.-External links:...
would portray the daughter). Loren's performance earned her many awards, including the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
's best performance prize, and an Academy Award for Best Actress
Academy Award for Best Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
, the first major Academy Award for a non-English-language performance and to an Italian actress. She won 22 international awards for Two Women. The film proved to be extremely well accepted by the critics and it was a huge commercial success.
Loren is 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." However, on the 20 December 2009, episode of CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning
CBS News Sunday Morning is an American television news magazine program created by Robert Northshield and original host Charles Kuralt. The program has aired continuously since January 28, 1979 on the CBS Television Network, airing in the Eastern US on Sunday from 9:00 to 10:30 a.m...
, Loren denied ever saying the line.
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
The Fall of the Roman Empire (film)
The Fall of the Roman Empire is a 1964 English-language epic film produced by Samuel Bronston Productions and the Rank Organisation, and released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston with Jaime Prades and Michal Waszynski as associate producers. The...
. In 1965, she received a second Academy Award nomination for her performance in Marriage Italian-Style
Marriage Italian-Style
Marriage Italian-Style is a 1964 film which tells the story of a successful businessman who kept a woman as his mistress for several years and now plans to marry another woman until his mistress pretends to be on her deathbed to induce him to marry her before she dies...
.
Among Loren's best-known films of this period are Samuel Bronston's
Samuel Bronston
Samuel Bronston was a Bessarabian-born American film producer, film director, and a nephew of socialist revolutionary figure, Leon Trotsky. He was also the petitioner in a U.S...
epic production
Epic film
An epic is a genre of film that emphasizes human drama on a grand scale. Epics are more ambitious in scope than other film genres, and their ambitious nature helps to differentiate them from similar genres such as the period piece or adventure film...
of El Cid (1961)
El Cid (film)
El Cid is a historical epic film, a romanticized story of the life of the Christian Castilian knight Don Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, called "El Cid" who in the 11th century fought the North African Almoravides and ultimately contributed to the unification of Spain.Made by Samuel Bronston Productions in...
with Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
, The Millionairess
The Millionairess
The Millionairess is a 1960 British romantic comedy film set in London, directed by Anthony Asquith and starring Sophia Loren and Peter Sellers...
(1960) with Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
, It Started in Naples
It Started in Naples
It Started in Naples is an American romantic comedy film made by Paramount Pictures and released in August 1960. It was directed by Melville Shavelson and produced by Jack Rose from a screenplay by Suso Cecchi d'Amico based on the story by Michael Pertwee and Jack Davies...
(1960) with Clark Gable
Clark Gable
William Clark Gable , known as Clark Gable, was an American film actor most famous for his role as Rhett Butler in the 1939 Civil War epic film Gone with the Wind, in which he starred with Vivien Leigh...
, Vittorio De Sica's triptych Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow is a 1963 comedy anthology film by Italian director Vittorio de Sica. It stars Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni. The film consists of three short stories about couples in different parts of Italy...
(1963) with Marcello Mastroianni, Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
's Lady L
Lady L
Lady L is a 1965 comedy film based on the novel by Romain Gary and directed by Peter Ustinov. The film stars Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, David Niven and Cecil Parker, and it focuses on an elderly Corsican lady recalls the loves of her life, including a Parisian aristocrat and an...
(1965) with Paul Newman
Paul Newman
Paul Leonard Newman was an American actor, film director, entrepreneur, humanitarian, professional racing driver and auto racing enthusiast...
, the 1966 classic Arabesque
Arabesque (film)
Arabesque is a 1966 thriller starring Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. The movie is based on Gordon Cotler's novel The Cypher and directed by Stanley Donen.-Plot:Professor David Pollock is an expert in ancient hieroglyphics at Oxford University...
with Gregory Peck
Gregory Peck
Eldred Gregory Peck was an American actor.One of 20th Century Fox's most popular film stars from the 1940s to the 1960s, Peck continued to play important roles well into the 1980s. His notable performances include that of Atticus Finch in the 1962 film To Kill a Mockingbird, for which he won an...
, and Charlie Chaplin
Charlie Chaplin
Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE was an English comic actor, film director and composer best known for his work during the silent film era. He became the most famous film star in the world before the end of World War I...
's final film, A Countess from Hong Kong
A Countess from Hong Kong
A Countess from Hong Kong is a 1967 British comedy film and the last film directed by Charlie Chaplin. It was one of two films Chaplin directed in which he did not play a major role , and his only color film. Chaplin's cameo marked his final screen appearance...
(1967) with Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando
Marlon Brando, Jr. was an American movie star and political activist. "Unchallenged as the most important actor in modern American Cinema" according to the St...
.
Loren received four Golden Globe Awards between 1964 and 1977 as "World Film Favorite - Female."
Mid-career and musical recordings
Once she became a mother, Loren worked less. Most of her acting during the next two decades was in Italian features. During the 1970s, she was paired with Richard Burton in the last De Sica-directed movie, The VoyageThe Voyage
The Voyage is an opera in three acts by the American composer Philip Glass . The libretto was written by David Henry Hwang....
(1974), and a remake of the film Brief Encounter
Brief Encounter (1974 film)
Brief Encounter is a 1974 British-Italian drama film starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, adapted from the play Still Life by Noel Coward. The material was previously adapted for the 1945 film Brief Encounter. Burton was cast at the last moment, after Robert Shaw dropped out. Popular Dad's...
(1974). In 1976 she starred in The Cassandra Crossing
The Cassandra Crossing
The Cassandra Crossing is a 1976 British disaster film directed by George Pan Cosmatos and starring Richard Harris, Ava Gardner, Sophia Loren, Martin Sheen, Burt Lancaster, Lee Strasberg and O. J. Simpson.-Plot:...
, a disaster film
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
featuring such veteran stars as Richard Harris
Richard Harris
Richard St John Harris was an Irish actor, singer-songwriter, theatrical producer, film director and writer....
, Martin Sheen
Martin Sheen
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez , better known by his stage name Martin Sheen, is an American film actor best known for his performances in the films Badlands and Apocalypse Now , and in the television series The West Wing from 1999 to 2006.He is considered one of the best actors never to be...
, and Ava Gardner
Ava Gardner
Ava Lavinia Gardner was an American actress.She was signed to a contract by MGM Studios in 1941 and appeared mainly in small roles until she drew attention with her performance in The Killers . She became one of Hollywood's leading actresses, considered one of the most beautiful women of her day...
. She also co-starred with Marcello Mastroianni in Ettore Scola's A Special Day
A Special Day
A Special Day is a 1977 Italian language film which tells the story of a housewife and her neighbor who stay at home in Rome on the day that Adolf Hitler visits Benito Mussolini. It stars Sophia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni and John Vernon, and was directed by Ettore Scola. The film was a...
(1977), an Italian film for which she was nominated for several awards. Loren then starred in the Hollywood thrillers Brass Target
Brass Target
Brass Target is a 1978 American war film, based on the novel The Algonquin Project by Frederick Nolan and directed by John Hough. It stars John Cassavetes, Robert Vaughn, George Kennedy, Patrick McGoohan and Max von Sydow....
(1978), set during World War II, and Firepower (1979), that had a moderate success.
In 1980, Loren portrayed herself, as well as her mother, in a made-for-television biopic adaptation of her autobiography titled Sophia Loren: Her Own Story. Actresses Ritza Brown and Chiara Ferrari played Loren at younger ages. In 1981, she became the first female celebrity to launch her own perfume, Sophia, and a brand of eyewear followed soon thereafter. She made headlines in 1982 when she served an 18-day prison sentence in Italy on tax evasion
Tax evasion
Tax evasion is the general term for efforts by individuals, corporations, trusts and other entities to evade taxes by illegal means. Tax evasion usually entails taxpayers deliberately misrepresenting or concealing the true state of their affairs to the tax authorities to reduce their tax liability,...
charges, a fact that didn't damage her career or popularity. In fact, Bill Moore, then employed at Pickle Packers International advertising department, sent her a pink pickle-shaped trophy for being "the prettiest lady in the prettiest pickle". She acted infrequently during the 1980s and turned down the role of Alexis Carrington in 1981 on the TV series Dynasty
Dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers considered members of the same family. Historians traditionally consider many sovereign states' history within a framework of successive dynasties, e.g., China, Ancient Egypt and the Persian Empire...
and although she was set to star in thirteen episodes of CBS' Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest
Falcon Crest is an American primetime television soap opera which aired on the CBS network for nine seasons, from December 4, 1981 to May 17, 1990. A total of 227 episodes were produced....
in 1984 as Angela Channing's half-sister Francesca Gioberti, negotiations fell through at the last moment and the role instead went to Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida
Gina Lollobrigida is an Italian actress, photojournalist and sculptress. She was one of the most popular European actresses of the 1950s and early 1960s. She was also an iconic sex symbol of the 1950s. Today, she remains an active supporter of Italian and Italian American causes, particularly the...
. Sophia, preferring to devote more time to raising her sons. In 1988 she starred in the miniseries The Fortunate Pilgrim
The Fortunate Pilgrim
The Fortunate Pilgrim is a 1965 novel by Mario Puzo. It deals with the Angeluzzi-Corbos family, a family of immigrants living an adopted life in New York City. The head of the family is Lucia Santa, a wife, widow and mother of two families. It is her formidable will that steers them through the...
.
Loren has also recorded well over two dozen songs throughout her career, including a best-selling album of comedic songs with Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers
Richard Henry Sellers, CBE , known as Peter Sellers, was a British comedian and actor. Perhaps best known as Chief Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther film series, he is also notable for playing three different characters in Dr...
; 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
Platonic love
Platonic love is a chaste and strong type of love that is non-sexual.-Amor Platonicus:The term amor platonicus was coined as early as the 15th century by the Florentine scholar Marsilio Ficino. Platonic love in this original sense of the term is examined in Plato's dialogue the Symposium, which has...
. This collaboration was covered in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers
The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is a 2004 film about the life of English comic actor Peter Sellers, based on Roger Lewis' book of the same name...
where actress Sonia Aquino
Sonia Aquino
- Biography :Theatre, cinema and television actress, she graduated at the National School of the Cinema in Rome and attended Francesca De Sapio's Duse Studio. Moreover she studied performing arts at the theatre "Bellini" in Naples, taking part in some stages held by Peter Del Monte, Marco...
portrayed Loren. It is said that the song "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)
Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)
"Where Do You Go To ?" is a 1969 song by Peter Sarstedt and recorded by renowned producer Ray Singer. Engineered by John Mackswith at Lansdowne Recording Studios. It was a #1 hit in the UK charts for four weeks in 1969 and was awarded the 1969 Ivor Novello Award, together with David Bowie's "Space...
" by Peter Sarstedt
Peter Sarstedt
Peter Eardley Sarstedt is an Anglo-Indian singer-songwriter.-Career:Sarstedt was born in India and attended Victoria Boys' School in Kurseong, in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. His family relocated to England in 1954...
was inspired by Loren.
Later career
In 1991, Loren received the Academy Honorary AwardAcademy Honorary Award
The Academy Honorary Award, instituted in 1948 for the 21st Academy Awards , is given by the discretion of the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate motion picture achievements that are not covered by existing Academy Awards, although prior winners of...
for her contributions to world cinema
World cinema
World cinema is a term used primarily in English language speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English speaking countries. It is therefore often used interchangeably with the term foreign film...
and was declared "one of the world cinema's treasures." In 1995, she received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award
Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award
The Cecil B. DeMille Award is an honorary Golden Globe Award bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for "outstanding contributions to the world of entertainment". It was first presented on February 21, 1952 at the 9th Annual Golden Globe Awards ceremony and is named in honor of its...
.
She presented Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , was an Italian film director and scriptwriter. Known for a distinct style that blends fantasy and baroque images, he is considered one of the most influential and widely revered filmmakers of the 20th century...
with his Honorary Oscar. In 2009 Loren stated on Larry King Live
Larry King Live
Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly....
that Fellini had planned to direct her in a film shortly before his death in 1993.
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, Loren was selective about choosing her films and ventured into various areas of business, including cook books, eyewear, jewellery and perfume.
She received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in Robert Altman
Robert Altman
Robert Bernard Altman was an American film director and screenwriter known for making films that are highly naturalistic, but with a stylized perspective. In 2006, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences recognized his body of work with an Academy Honorary Award.His films MASH , McCabe and...
's film Ready to Wear
Prêt-à-Porter (film)
Prêt-à-Porter is a 1994 American satirical black comedy film co-written, directed, and produced by Robert Altman and shot during the Paris, France, Fashion Week with a host of international stars, models and designers...
(1994), co-starring Julia Roberts
Julia Roberts
Julia Fiona Roberts is an American actress. She became a Hollywood star after headlining the romantic comedy Pretty Woman , which grossed $464 million worldwide...
.
In the comedy Grumpier Old Men
Grumpier Old Men
Grumpier Old Men is a 1995 romantic comedy film, and a sequel to the 1993 film Grumpy Old Men. The film stars Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, and Sophia Loren, with Burgess Meredith, Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Katie Sagona, Ann Morgan Guilbert...
(1995), Loren played a femme fatale
Femme fatale
A femme fatale is a mysterious and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetype of literature and art...
opposite Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau
Walter Matthau was an American actor best known for his role as Oscar Madison in The Odd Couple and his frequent collaborations with Odd Couple star Jack Lemmon, as well as his role as Coach Buttermaker in the 1976 comedy The Bad News Bears...
, Jack Lemmon
Jack Lemmon
John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
, and Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson is a Swedish-American actress, singer and dancer whose professional name is Ann-Margret. She became famous for her starring roles in Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, The Cincinnati Kid, Carnal Knowledge, and Tommy...
. The film was a box-office success and became Loren's biggest U.S hit in years.
In 2001, Loren received a Special Grand Prix of the Americas Award at the Montreal World Film Festival
Montreal World Film Festival
The Montreal World Film Festival , founded in 1977, is one of Canada's oldest international film festivals and the only competitive film festival in North America accredited by the FIAPF...
for her body of work. She filmed two projects in Canada during this time: the independent film Between Strangers
Between Strangers
-Cast:*Sophia Loren as Olivia*Mira Sorvino as Natalia Bauer*Deborah Kara Unger as Catherine*Pete Postlethwaite as John*Julian Richings as Nigel*Klaus Maria Brandauer as Alexander Bauer*Malcolm McDowell as Alan Baxter*Len Doncheff as Grocery Store Owner...
(2002), directed by her son Edoardo and co-starring Mira Sorvino
Mira Sorvino
Mira Katherine Sorvino is an American actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Mighty Aphrodite and is also known for her role as Romy White in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion.- Early life :Sorvino was born in Tenafly, New Jersey...
, and the television miniseries Lives of the Saints
Lives of the Saints (TV miniseries)
Lives of the Saints is a 2004 TV miniseries directed by Jerry Ciccoritti, written by Malcolm MacRury, and based on the 1990 novel, Lives of the Saints, by Nino Ricci...
(2004).
In 2009, after five years off the set and fourteen years since she starred in a prominent US theatrical film, Loren starred in Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall
Rob Marshall is an American theater director, film director and choreographer. He is a six-time Tony Award nominee, Academy Award nominee, Golden Globe nominee and four-time Emmy winner whose most noted work is the 2002 Academy Award for Best Picture winner Chicago.-Life and career:Marshall was...
's film version of Nine
Nine (film)
Nine is a 2009 musical-romantic film directed and produced by Rob Marshall. The screenplay, written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, is based on Arthur Kopit's book for the 1982 musical of the same name, which was itself suggested by Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½...
, based on the Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
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 stars Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor with both British and Irish citizenship. His portrayals of Christy Brown in My Left Foot and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood won Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, and Screen Actors Guild as well as Golden Globe Awards for the latter...
, Penelope Cruz
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...
, Kate Hudson
Kate Hudson
Kate Garry Hudson is an American actress. She came to prominence in 2001 after winning a Golden Globe and receiving several nominations, including a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, for her role in Almost Famous. She then starred in the hit film How to Lose a Guy in 10...
, Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants...
, and Nicole Kidman
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman, AC is an American-born Australian actress, singer, film producer, spokesmodel, and humanitarian. After starring in a number of small Australian films and TV shows, Kidman's breakthrough was in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm...
. As a part of the cast she received her first nomination for a Screen 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, entitled La Mia Casa È Piena di Specchi (translated My House Is Full of Mirrors), based on the memoir written by her sister Maria.
Personal life
Loren's primary residence has been in GenevaGeneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
since late 2006. She also owns homes in Naples
Naples
Naples is a city in Southern Italy, situated on the country's west coast by the Gulf of Naples. Lying between two notable volcanic regions, Mount Vesuvius and the Phlegraean Fields, it is the capital of the region of Campania and of the province of Naples...
and Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
In September 1999, Loren filed a lawsuit against 76 adult websites for posting altered nude photos of her on the internet.
Loren is a huge fan of the football club S.S.C. Napoli
S.S.C. Napoli
Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli, commonly referred to as Napoli, is a professional Italian football club based in Naples and founded in 1926. The club has spent most of its history in Serie A, where it currently plays its 2011–12 season....
. In May 2007, when the team was third in Serie B
Serie B
Serie B, currently named Serie bwin due to sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It is contested by 22 teams and organized by the Lega Serie B since July 2010, after the split of Lega Calcio that previously took care of both the...
, she told the Gazzetta dello Sport that she would do a striptease if the team won.
Loren posed scantily-clad at 72 for the 2007 Pirelli Calendar
Pirelli Calendar
The Pirelli Calendar is a trade calendar published by the Pirelli company's UK subsidiary. It has become an annual publication that dates back to 1964....
along with such actresses as Penelope Cruz
Penélope Cruz
Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a Spanish actress. Signed by an agent at age 15, she made her acting debut at 16 on television and her feature film debut the following year in Jamón, jamón , to critical acclaim...
and Hilary Swank
Hilary Swank
Hilary Ann Swank is an American actress. Swank's film career began with a small part in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and then a major part in The Next Karate Kid , as Julie Pierce, the first female protégé of sensei Mr. Miyagi...
.
Marriage and family
Loren first met Carlo PontiCarlo Ponti
Carlo Ponti was an Italian film producer with over 140 production credits, and the husband of Italian movie star Sophia Loren.-Career:...
in 1950 when she was 15 and he was 37. They married on 17 September 1957. However, Ponti was still officially married to his first wife Giuliana under Italian law because Italy did not recognize divorce at that time. The couple had their marriage annulled in 1962 to escape bigamy
Bigamy
In cultures that practice marital monogamy, bigamy is the act of entering into a marriage with one person while still legally married to another. Bigamy is a crime in most western countries, and when it occurs in this context often neither the first nor second spouse is aware of the other...
charges. In 1965, Ponti obtained a divorce from Giuliana in France, allowing him to marry Loren on 9 April 1966. They later became French citizens after their application was approved by then French President Georges Pompidou
Georges Pompidou
Georges Jean Raymond Pompidou was a French politician. He was Prime Minister of France from 1962 to 1968, holding the longest tenure in this position, and later President of the French Republic from 1969 until his death in 1974.-Biography:...
.
The couple had two sons: Carlo Ponti Jr.
Carlo Ponti (conductor)
Carlo Ponti is an orchestral conductor of Italian origin.-Biography:Ponti worked at the Conductor's Institute in Hartford, USA, under the direction of Harold Farberman from 1994 to 1996, worked with Mehli Mehta, Zubin Mehta and Andrey Boreyko in Los Angeles from 1997 to 1999 and furthered his...
(born 29 December 1968) and Edoardo Ponti
Edoardo Ponti
Edoardo Ponti is an Italian-American director. He is the son of actress Sophia Loren and producer Carlo Ponti. He is married to actress Sasha Alexander, and the couple have a daughter, Lucia and a son, Leonardo Fortunato Ponti .He made his directorial debut in 1998 with Liv...
(born 6 January 1973).
Loren remained married to Carlo Ponti until his death on 10 January 2007 of pulmonary complications.
When asked in a November 2009 interview if she is ever likely to marry again, Loren replied "No, never again. It would be impossible to love anyone else."
Her daughters-in-law are Sasha Alexander
Sasha Alexander
Sasha Alexander is an American actress. She is best known for several roles, including Gretchen Witter, the sister of Pacey Witter on Dawson's Creek; NCIS Special Agent Kate Todd in the first two seasons of NCIS; as Lucy in Yes Man ; and as Catherine in He's Just Not That Into You .She currently...
and Andrea Meszaros. Loren has three grandchildren: Lucia Ponti (born 12 May 2006), Vittorio Ponti (born 3 April 2007). and Leonardo Fortunato (born 20 December 2010).
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1950 | I Am the Capataz | Secretary of the Dictator | |
| 1950 | Barbablu's Six Wives | Girl kidnapped | |
| 1950 | Tototarzan | A tarzanide | |
| 1950 | I Devote, Thee | A popular to the party of piedigrotta | |
| 1950 | Hearts at Sea | Extra | Uncredited |
| 1951 | White Leprosy | A girl in the boardinghouse | |
| 1951 | Owner of the Vapor | Ballerinetta | |
| 1951 | Milan Billionaire | Extra | Uncredited |
| 1951 | Magician for Force | The bride | |
| 1951 | Quo Vadis Quo Vadis (1951 film) Quo Vadis is a 1951 epic film made by MGM. It was directed by Mervyn LeRoy and produced by Sam Zimbalist, from a screenplay by John Lee Mahin, S. N. Behrman and Sonya Levien, adapted from Henryk Sienkiewicz's classic 1896 novel Quo Vadis. The music score was by Miklós Rózsa and the cinematography... |
Lygia's slave | Uncredited |
| 1951 | It's Him!... Yes! Yes! | Odalisca | |
| 1951 | Anna Anna (1951 film) Anna is a 1951 Italian drama film directed by Alberto Lattuada and starring by the same trio as Bitter Rice: Silvana Mangano as Anna, the sinner who becomes a nun; Raf Vallone as Andrea, the rich man who loves her; and Vittorio Gassman as Vittorio, the wicked waiter who sets Anna on a dangerous... |
Night club assistant | Uncredited |
| 1952 | And Arrived the Accordatore | Amica di Giulietta | |
| 1952 | I Dream of Zorro | Conchita | As Sofia Scicolone |
| 1952 | Leonora | ||
| 1953 | Bonbon | ||
| 1953 | Pilgrim of Love | ||
| 1953 | We Find Ourselves in Arcade | Marisa | |
| 1953 | Two Nights with Cleopatra Two Nights with Cleopatra Two Nights with Cleopatra is a 1953 comedy film directed by Mario Mattoli and starring Sophia Loren.-Cast:* Sophia Loren - Cleopatra / Nisca* Alberto Sordi - Cesarino* Ettore Manni - Marcantonio* Paul Muller - Tortul... |
Cleopatra/Nisca | |
| 1953 | Girls Marked Danger | Elvira | |
| 1953 | Good Folk's Sunday | Ines | |
| 1953 | Aida Aida (1953 film) Aida is a 1953 Italian film version of the opera Aida by Giuseppe Verdi. It was directed by Clemente Fracassi and produced by Gregor Rabinovitch and Federico Teti. The screenplay was adapted by Fracassi, Carlo Castelli, Anna Gobbi and Giorgio Salviucci from the libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni... |
Aida | |
| 1953 | Africa Under the Seas | Barbara Lama | |
| 1954 | Neapolitan Carousel Neapolitan Carousel Neapolitan Carousel is a 1954 Italian comedy film directed by Ettore Giannini. It was entered into the 1954 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Léonide Massine - Antonio 'Pulcinella' Petito* Achille Millo - Pulcinella's son* Agostino Salvietti - Prompter... |
Sisina | |
| 1954 | Anna | ||
| 1954 | |||
| 1954 | Poverty and Nobility Poverty and Nobility Poverty and Nobility is a 1954 comedy film directed by Mario Mattoli and starring Totò.-Cast:* Totò - Felice Sciosciammocca* Liana Billi - Concetta* Leo Brandi* Franco Caruso* Gianni Cavalieri - Gaetano* Carlo Croccolo - Luigino* Dino Curcio... |
Gemma | |
| 1954 | Sofia | Segment "Pizze a Credito" | |
| 1954 | Attila Attila (1954 film) Attila is a 1954 Franco-Italian film co-production, directed by Pietro Francisci and produced by Dino De Laurentiis. Based on the life of Attila the Hun, it stars Anthony Quinn as Attila and Sophia Loren as Honoria, with Henri Vidal, Irene Papas, Ettore Manni and Christian Marquand. Scott Marlowe ... |
Honoria | |
| 1954 | Too Bad She's Bad Too Bad She's Bad Too Bad She's Bad is a 1954 Italian comedy directed by Alessandro Blasetti. It stars Sophia Loren and is based on Alberto Moravia's story, Fanatico, from his Racconti Romani.-Cast:* Vittorio De Sica - Vittorio Stroppiani... |
Lina Stroppiani | |
| 1955 | Agnese Tirabassi | ||
| 1955 | Carmela | ||
| 1955 | Nives Mongolini | ||
| 1955 | Scandal in Sorrento | Donna Sofia | |
| 1956 | Lucky to Be a Woman Lucky to Be a Woman Lucky to Be a Woman is a 1956 Italian comedy film directed by Alessandro Blasetti starring Sophia Loren and Charles Boyer.-Cast:* Sophia Loren - Antonietta Fallari* Charles Boyer - Count Gregorio Sennetti* Marcello Mastroianni - Corrado Betti... |
Antonietta Fallari | |
| 1957 | Boy on a Dolphin Boy on a Dolphin Boy on a Dolphin is a 1957 20th Century Fox romantic film set in Greece and made in CinemaScope. It was directed by Jean Negulesco and produced by Samuel G. Engel from a screenplay by Ivan Moffat and Dwight Taylor, based on the novel by David Divine.... |
Phaedra | |
| 1957 | Juana | ||
| 1957 | Legend of the Lost Legend of the Lost Legend of the Lost is a 1957 Italy/U.S. adventure film starring John Wayne, Sophia Loren, and Rossano Brazzi. The location shooting for the film took place near Tripoli, Libya.-Plot:... |
Dita | |
| 1958 | Desire Under the Elms Desire Under the Elms (film) Desire Under the Elms is a 1958 American film version of the 1924 play Desire Under the Elms written by Eugene O'Neill. The film was directed by Delbert Mann from a screenplay by O'Neill and Irwin Shaw. The cast included Sophia Loren as Abbie , Anthony Perkins as Eben, Burl Ives as Ephraim, Frank... |
Anna Cabot | |
| 1958 | Stella | ||
| 1958 | Rose Bianco | Volpi Cup Volpi Cup The Volpi Cups are the principal awards given to actors at the Venice Film Festival. Formal acting awards were introduced in the second festival . Initially they were called Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment. The name Volpi Cup was introduced the following year... |
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| 1958 | Houseboat Houseboat (film) Houseboat is a 1958 romantic comedy film starring Cary Grant, Sophia Loren, Martha Hyer, Paul Petersen, Charles Herbert and Mimi Gibson. The movie was directed by Melville Shavelson, who also directed the original 1968 version of Yours, Mine and Ours.... |
Cinzia Zaccardi | |
| 1959 | That Kind of Woman That Kind of Woman That Kind of Woman is a 1959 American drama film directed by Sidney Lumet, who was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 9th Berlin International Film Festival. It stars Sophia Loren. The screenplay by Walter Bernstein, based on a short story by Robert Lowry , is highly reminiscent of the 1938 film... |
Kay | |
| 1960 | Heller in Pink Tights Heller in Pink Tights Heller In Pink Tights is a 1960 Technicolor western film adapted from Louis L'Amour's novel, Heller with a Gun. It stars Sophia Loren and Anthony Quinn and was directed by George Cukor.... |
Angela Rossini | |
| 1960 | It Started in Naples It Started in Naples It Started in Naples is an American romantic comedy film made by Paramount Pictures and released in August 1960. It was directed by Melville Shavelson and produced by Jack Rose from a screenplay by Suso Cecchi d'Amico based on the story by Michael Pertwee and Jack Davies... |
Lucia Curio | Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy |
| 1960 | Epifania Parerga | ||
| 1960 | Princess Olympia | ||
| 1960 | Two Women Two Women Two Women is a 1960 Italian film directed by Vittorio De Sica. It tells the story of a woman trying to protect her young daughter from the horrors of war. The film stars Sophia Loren, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Eleonora Brown, Carlo Ninchi and Andrea Checchi... |
Cesira | |
| 1961 | Jimena | ||
| 1962 | Madame Sans-Gêne Madame Sans-Gêne (film) Madame Sans-Gêne is a 1962 Spanish-Italian-French film co-production distributed by Embassy Pictures. It was directed by Christian-Jaque and adapted from the 1893 play by Victorien Sardou and Émile Moreau.... |
Catherine Hubscher, said "Madame Sans-Gêne" | |
| 1962 | Boccaccio '70 Boccaccio '70 Boccaccio '70 is a 1962 Italian portmanteau film directed by Mario Monicelli, Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio de Sica, from an idea by Cesare Zavattini... |
Zoe | Segment "La Riffa" |
| 1963 | Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow | Adelina Sbaratti/Anna Molteni/Mara | David di Donatello for Best Actress David di Donatello for Best Actress -Albo d'oro:1956Gina Lollobrigida - La donna più bella del mondo1958*Anna Magnani - Wild Is the Wind1959*Anna Magnani - Nella città l'inferno1961*Sophia Loren - La ciociara1963... |
| 1964 | Lucilla | ||
| 1964 | Marriage Italian-Style Marriage Italian-Style Marriage Italian-Style is a 1964 film which tells the story of a successful businessman who kept a woman as his mistress for several years and now plans to marry another woman until his mistress pretends to be on her deathbed to induce him to marry her before she dies... |
Filumena Marturano | |
| 1965 | Operation Crossbow Operation Crossbow (film) Operation Crossbow is a British 1965 spy thriller and World War II film, made from a story from Duilio Coletti and Vittoriano Petrilli and filmed at MGM-British Studios... |
Nora | |
| 1965 | Lady L Lady L Lady L is a 1965 comedy film based on the novel by Romain Gary and directed by Peter Ustinov. The film stars Sophia Loren, Paul Newman, David Niven and Cecil Parker, and it focuses on an elderly Corsican lady recalls the loves of her life, including a Parisian aristocrat and an... |
Lady Louise Lendale/Lady L | |
| 1966 | Judith | Judith | |
| 1966 | Arabesque Arabesque (film) Arabesque is a 1966 thriller starring Gregory Peck and Sophia Loren. The movie is based on Gordon Cotler's novel The Cypher and directed by Stanley Donen.-Plot:Professor David Pollock is an expert in ancient hieroglyphics at Oxford University... |
Yasmin Azir | |
| 1967 | Natasha | ||
| 1967 | More Than a Miracle More than a Miracle More Than a Miracle is a 1967 film also titled Cinderella Italian Style and Happily Ever After. It stars Sophia Loren and Omar Sharif, Dolores del Río and has a surreal fairy tale narrative. Filmed in the countryside outside of Naples, this film had Francesco Rosi as its director, and Carlo Ponti,... |
Isabella Candeloro | |
| 1968 | Ghosts - Italian Style Ghosts - Italian Style Ghosts - Italian Style is a 1968 Italian comedy film directed by Renato Castellani.-Cast:* Sophia Loren - Maria Lojacono* Vittorio Gassman - Pasquale Lojacono* Mario Adorf - Alfredo Mariano* Aldo Giuffrè - Raffaele* Margaret Lee - Sayonara... |
Maria Lojacono | |
| 1970 | Sunflower | Giovanna | |
| 1971 | Lady Liberty Lady Liberty Lady Liberty may refer to:* Lady Liberty , La mortadella, 1972 French-Italian comedy* "Lady Liberty" , written by Al Jardine and Ron Altbach for the Beach Boys... |
Maddalena Ciarrapico | |
| 1971 | Valeria Billi | ||
| 1972 | Man of La Mancha Man of La Mancha (film) Man of La Mancha is a 1972 film adaptation of the Broadway musical Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, with music by Mitch Leigh and lyrics by Joe Darion... |
Aldonza/Dulcinea | |
| 1973 | Hermana Germana | ||
| 1974 | Adriana de Mauro | ||
| 1974 | Verdict | Teresa Leoni | |
| 1974 | Brief Encounter Brief Encounter (1974 film) Brief Encounter is a 1974 British-Italian drama film starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, adapted from the play Still Life by Noel Coward. The material was previously adapted for the 1945 film Brief Encounter. Burton was cast at the last moment, after Robert Shaw dropped out. Popular Dad's... |
Anna Jesson | |
| 1975 | Sex Pot Sex Pot Sex Pot is a 1975 Italian comedy film directed by Giorgio Capitani.-Cast:* Sophia Loren - Pupa* Marcello Mastroianni - Charlie Colletto* Aldo Maccione - Chopin* Pierre Brice - Commissaire adjoint Salvatore Lambelli* Nazzareno Natale - Frankie Bottles... |
Pupa | |
| 1976 | Jennifer Rispoli Chamberlain | ||
| 1977 | Antoinette | ||
| 1978 | Blood Feud | Titina Paterno | |
| 1978 | Brass Target Brass Target Brass Target is a 1978 American war film, based on the novel The Algonquin Project by Frederick Nolan and directed by John Hough. It stars John Cassavetes, Robert Vaughn, George Kennedy, Patrick McGoohan and Max von Sydow.... |
Mara/cameo role | |
| 1978 | Angela Angela (1978 film) Angela is a 1978 film directed by Boris Sagal. It stars Sophia Loren and Steve Railsback.-Cast:*Sophia Loren as Angela Kincaid*Steve Railsback as Jean Lebrecque*John Huston as Hogan*John Vernon as Ben Kincaid*Michelle Rossignol as Coco... |
Angela Kincaid | |
| 1979 | Firepower Firepower (film) Firepower is a 1979 British action film directed by Michael Winner and starring Sophia Loren, James Coburn, O.J. Simpson and Eli Wallach. It was the final film in the career of actor Victor Mature.-Synopsis:... |
Adele Tasca/cameo role | |
| 1980 | Sophia Loren: Her Own Story | herself/Romilda Villani (her mother) | |
| 1984 | Aurora Aurora (1984 film) Aurora is a 1984 Italian drama film directed by Maurizio Ponzi and starring Sophia Loren, Edoardo Ponti and Daniel J. Travanti. In order to raise money for an operation for her son, a woman tells various former wealthy lovers that they are his father. Its Italian title is Qualcosa de... |
Aurora | Television film |
| 1986 | Courage | Marianna Miraldo | Television film |
| 1988 | Lucia | Television miniseries | |
| 1989 | Running Away Running Away "Running Away" is a single recorded by Hoobastank. It was the third single released from the band's 2001 self titled debut.The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and became the highest charting single from the album and one of Hoobastank's biggest hits. It is also featured... |
Cesira | |
| 1990 | Saturday, Sunday and Monday | Rosa Priore | |
| 1994 | Prêt-à-Porter Prêt-à-Porter (film) Prêt-à-Porter is a 1994 American satirical black comedy film co-written, directed, and produced by Robert Altman and shot during the Paris, France, Fashion Week with a host of international stars, models and designers... |
Isabella de la Fontaine | |
| 1995 | Grumpier Old Men Grumpier Old Men Grumpier Old Men is a 1995 romantic comedy film, and a sequel to the 1993 film Grumpy Old Men. The film stars Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, Ann-Margret, and Sophia Loren, with Burgess Meredith, Daryl Hannah, Kevin Pollak, Katie Sagona, Ann Morgan Guilbert... |
Maria Sophia Coletta Ragetti | |
| 1997 | Soleil Soleil Soleil may refer to:* French for the Sun* Soleil , a 2002 album by female Japanese pop artist Watanabe Misato* Soleil , a 1971 album* Soleil , a 1997 French film by Roger Hanin... |
Maman Levy | |
| 2001 | Francesca e Nunziata | Francesca Montorsi | |
| 2002 | Between Strangers Between Strangers -Cast:*Sophia Loren as Olivia*Mira Sorvino as Natalia Bauer*Deborah Kara Unger as Catherine*Pete Postlethwaite as John*Julian Richings as Nigel*Klaus Maria Brandauer as Alexander Bauer*Malcolm McDowell as Alan Baxter*Len Doncheff as Grocery Store Owner... |
Olivia | |
| 2004 | Too Much Romance... It's Time for Stuffed Peppers | Maria | |
| 2004 | Lives of the Saints Lives of the Saints (TV miniseries) Lives of the Saints is a 2004 TV miniseries directed by Jerry Ciccoritti, written by Malcolm MacRury, and based on the 1990 novel, Lives of the Saints, by Nino Ricci... |
Teresa Innocente | |
| 2009 | Nine Nine (film) Nine is a 2009 musical-romantic film directed and produced by Rob Marshall. The screenplay, written by Michael Tolkin and Anthony Minghella, is based on Arthur Kopit's book for the 1982 musical of the same name, which was itself suggested by Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical film 8½... |
Mamma | |
| 2010 | My House Is Full of Mirrors | Romilda Villani | |
| 2010 | Femina Femina Femina is a Latin noun meaning 'woman'.It is the title of five magazines:*Femina , a fortnightly women's magazine owned by the Times Group and published in India since July 1959*Femina , the first women's magazine in Indonesia... |
Pre-production | |
| 2011 | Todos contra Juan 2 | Herself | Argentinian television sitcom |