Sophia Loren / Italy / Biography

Sophia Loren
Loren, Sophia (sōfē'u lôren') [key], 1934–, Italian film actress, b. as Sophia Scicoloni. She grew up in the slums of Naples. With the help of Italian producer Carlo Ponti (later her husband) she gained international fame as a beautiful and accomplished film actress in both tragic dramas and boisterous comedies. She won the first Academy Award for a foreign-language performance for her role in Two Women (1961), and she received a special Academy Award in 1991 for her body of work. Her movies include The Gold of Naples (1954), The Pride and the Passion (1957), Houseboat (1958), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963), Marriage Italian Style (1964), and A Special Day (1977). In the autobiographical television movie Sophia Loren: Her Own Story (1980), she played herself and her mother.
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Sophia Loren / Italy / Biography -
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Sophia Loren
Actress Born: 9/20/1934Birthplace: Rome, Italy
Academy Award-winning film actress known for her stunning beauty and for her roles opposite Marcello Mastroianni. Her films include Two Women (1961), El Cid (1961), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1964), and Grumpier Old Men (1995). Her husband is producer Carlo Ponti.

Sophia LorenActress
Born: 20 September 1934
Birthplace: Rome, Italy
Best known as: Italian film queen and sex symbol
Name at birth: Sofia Scicolone

Sophia Loren was one of Italy's great 20th-century sex symbols. She hit it big in the movies in 1950s, thanks especially to film producer Carlo Ponti (whom she married in 1957). In 1961 she won an Oscar for the Italian wartime drama Two Women (La Ciociara). In addition to her va-va-voom image, Loren has always been a respected actress; in 1991 she won an honorary Oscar in recognition of her full body of work. Her films include The Pride and the Passion (1957, with Frank Sinatra), It Started in Naples (1960, with Clark Gable) and El Cid (1961, with Charlton Heston and based on the life of Spanish legend El Cid).
Extra credit: Loren is sometimes compared with another Italian star of the era, Gina Lollobrigida.