September 20, 2024 11:20 am MTI
On September 20, Sophia Loren, the grande dame of Italian film, “one of the greatest treasures of the film world” turned 90.
Sophia Loren poses for photographers at a press conference, 1955
Sofia Villani Scicolone was born as an illegitimate child in Rome and grew up in a poor neighborhood in Naples. By the age of fifteen, the little girl who was teased as a matchstick had become a long-legged, plump-chested bakfis, who traveled to Rome with a train ticket won in a beauty contest.
In Cinecitta a Where are you going? in the American super-production titled, she was only an extra, then she was “promoted” to the role of the slave of the main character Deborah Kerr.
She worked as a model and participated in beauty contests. It was during one such contest that she was noticed by the producer Carlo Ponti, who was twenty-four years her senior, and gave her a test recording.
The devastating result – her nose was found to be too big and her hips too strong – was forgotten by the protection, so at the age of barely nineteen, under the stage name Sophia Loren (her last name comes from the name of the Swedish actress Marta Toren), the Aida he got his first leading role in the film version.
The role was first offered to Gina Lollobrigida, but she said no, because she didn’t want to be a double for an opera singer, thus starting the rivalry between the two actresses, which was referred to in the press as a “breast war”.
Hollywood lay at his feet
Loren created a myth in the gold of Naples in 1954: his provocative gait, statuesque body, and explosive temper conquered the audience in one fell swoop. It was adapted from the novel by Alberto Moravia in 1960 A woman and her daughter in the film, which recalls his own troubled childhood, he was able to show off his acting skills.
She played a mother fleeing the inhumanity of war when she was only twenty-seven years old, and in 1961 she won the Oscar for best actress, the first in film history not to be in the English language.
With Anthony Perkins in Lust Under the Elms (1958)
Following the success, he tried to enter Hollywood, but the interest of the press was more aroused by his running relationship with Cary Grant, even though he played with such greats as Richard Burton (Late meeting, The journey), Marlon Brando (The Countess of Hong Kong), Clark Gable (It started in Naples), Paul Newman (Lady L.), Anthony Perkins (Desire under the elms, A knife in the wound) or Peter O’Toole (Knight of La Mancha).
In her mature years, she filmed several comedies with the elderly Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, and among Italian actresses she has appeared in the most American films to date.
In his home country, he and Marcello Mastroianni were the dream couple of Italian cinema, appearing together more than ten times. Among them was Yesterday, today, tomorrowa Marriage the Italian way (Loren received his second Oscar nomination for this in 1964), a Sunflower, The priest’s wifethat is A special daya Bloody land.
They played together for the last time in 1994, after a decade and a half, in the brilliantly cast Robert Altman directed Fashion dictators in the film satire entitled
On the contrary, he created lively, temperamental and outspoken Italian women, and the audience also identifies with this image.
Men fell for her, but she only gave her heart to someone
Her private life is far from exciting, she was Carlo Ponti’s partner all her life. The producer was already married when they fell in love, and since divorce was not recognized in Italy at the time, he had his marriage annulled in Mexico and married Loren there in 1957.
Ponti was considered a bigamist in Italy, so they lived abroad for a long time. One of their two sons became a director, the other a musician, and the latter had his church wedding in Budapest with the Hungarian violinist Andrea Mészáros.
One of the biggest stars of Italian cinema, he received his second Oscar for Lifetime Achievement in 1990, which he accepted. In 1961, he was so nervous that he didn’t even go to the gala, the good news came to him in Rome, the Englishman Greer Garson took the gold statuette instead.
He is the holder of the Knight’s Cross of the French Order of Honor, the British BAFTA Award, in 2004 he won – shared – the Grammy Award in the category of the best prose children’s album (Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf), in 2010 he received the Praemium Imperiale Japanese art award.
In addition to his five special Golden Globe awards, his life work was recognized with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1995, and his star adorns the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Sophia Loren 1959-ben
In 1992, he was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, a street bears his name in Toronto and Jesolo, but he did not agree to have his childhood town, Pozzuoli, erect a statue of him.
He owes his wonderful figure to his disciplined lifestyle. THE Playboy magazine approached him even when he was close to seventy, but he refused the nude photo offer even then, but he said yes to Pirelli in 2007, making him the oldest actor in the famous calendars of the rubber factory.
His name is also a trademark, Loren glasses are known worldwide. His CV in 2014 Yesterday, today, tomorrow was published under the title
You have already read the Past
historical magazine
latest issue?
discount subscription for 1 year (5 numbers)
Printed subscription purchase
bank card payment in case of 20% with a discount.
The annual subscription already includes the autumn special issue.
12 450 ft 9 990 Ft
Digital subscription purchase with access to the entire archive 25% with a discount.
For the first 500 subscribers.
20 000 ft 14 990 Ft
