Sophia Loren turns 90: The Italian film diva's roles and international awards
Sophia Loren, undisputed diva of Italian cinema, turns 90 years old today.
A timeless icon on the national and international scene, Sophia Loren made history in world cinema, becoming one of the most famous and influential actresses worldwide from the 1960s onwards.
The Italian actress with French citizenship bewitched Hollywood thanks to her beauty and her ability to masterfully interpret roles ranging from comedy to drama.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella issued the following statement: "On the occasion of her birthday, I would like to send her my heartfelt best wishes, together with the Republic's thanks for her extraordinary career as a film performer, marked by the attribution of numerous prestigious national and international awards."
His message continued: "Her elegance, charm and inimitable acting have characterised a large number of Italian and foreign films, which have contributed to the best history of cinema, making her an image of Italian beauty and art in the world."
A troubled youth before success
Born in Rome on 20 September 1934, Sofia Villani Scicolone had a troubled childhood. Her mother Romilda Villani, a piano teacher, and her father Riccardo Scicolone, an employee of the State Railways, were not married. Her father was a largely absent figure, which forced her and her mother to live in precarious economic conditions.
In 1932, her mother won a competition in Hollywood as a lookalike for the Italian actress Greta Garbo. However, when she became pregnant, she gave up on leaving Italy. Indeed, she was forced to return to Pozzuoli by her family due to economic difficulties. Sofia spent her childhood and early teenage years there, experiencing the bombings of the Second World War at first hand.
Her life changed in 1950, when at the age of fifteen, Sofia entered and won her first beauty contest. Thanks to the prize money she and her mother were able to return to Rome. This Miss Elegance title led her father to complain, citing alleged prostitution; however, it was also made directors and producers notice her for the first time.
Among them was Carlo Ponti, who was to become her future husband. The Franco-Italian film producer offered her a seven-year contract to act in his films. Thus began not only a professional partnership, but also an intense love affair.
Ponti, then 38 years old, was married with two children. In 1956, he went to Mexico and obtained a divorce, which was not yet allowed in Italy. In 1965, Ponti also officially divorced in France and married Loren. Their long marriage, in which the two had two children, lasted until the latter's death.
After their union, President Georges Pompidou granted them both French citizenship.
Hollywood debut in the 1960s
It was Ponti who suggested she change her surname to Loren, as it sounded better on the international market.
The young actress's ambition didn't limit itself to Italy - Hollywood took notice.
Her first film debut took place as early as 1953, alongside leading figures in Italian cinema. Her first film, Aida, produced by Ponti, was followed by, among others, Due notti con Cleopatra with Alberto Sordi, L'oro di Napoli directed by Vittorio De Sica, Miseria e nobiltà with Totò and La donna del fiume by Mario Soldati.
In Peccato che sia una canaglia (1954), directed by Alessandro Blasetti, Loren starred for the first time with actor Marcello Mastroianni: the film launched one of the most famous and iconic couples of Italian cinema.
They teamed up once more in Ieri oggi domani (1963), an episodic film directed by Vittorio De Sica, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 1965. The famous seduction scene played by the Loren-Mastroianni couple remains iconic. He made eight films with De Sica, almost all with Mastroianni.
In 1955, international recognition began to arrive. The well-known US magazine Life dedicated a cover to her and, in the same year, she became the most photographed actress at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
In the 1960s, Loren achieved international success, making a splash in Hollywood and becoming the symbol of Italian beauty in the world. In those years she worked alongside actors such as Cary Grant - with whom she admitted to having had a flirtation - William Holden, John Wayne, Paul Newman, Frank Sinatra and with established American directors, including Charlie Chaplin.
During these years, the actress also took part in various European film productions, including her role in Madame Sans-Gêne (1961), directed by French director Christian-Jaque, in which Loren played the laundress Catherine.
From the 1970s Loren's film appearances were reduced, coinciding with her motherhood. After a series of unfortunate attempts, her two sons with Ponti were born: Carlo Jr. in 1968 and Edoardo in 1973.
Italian and international awards
Sophia Loren has won a total of 28 awards and received 9 nominations.
Among the awards are two Oscars. Her role as Cesira - initially offered to Anna Magnani - in La Ciociara (1960), a film produced by Ponti and directed by Vittorio De Sica, won her the statuette for Best Actress in 1962. It was the first non-English-language performance to win it. Loren, however, did not attend the ceremony for fear of fainting from emotion, she said.
In 1991, she won an honorary Oscar, which together with the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1998 and the David di Donatello in 1999 makes the triptych of her lifetime achievement awards.
Loren is also the Italian actress to have won the most David di Donatello for Best Actress in the history of the award: no fewer than seven, out of the eleven total Davids she has won. The last was in 2021, for La vita davanti a sé by her son Edoardo Ponti.
"The first time I received a David di Donatello was more than sixty years ago, but tonight still feels like the first," she said on that occasion. "The emotion is the same. Without cinema I cannot live," she added.
Other awards she has won include five Golden Globe awards, two awards at the Venice Film Festival, one award at the Cannes Film Festival, one award at the Berlin Film Festival, eleven David di Donatello awards, four Nastri d'Argento awards, one Bafta award and one César award.
In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked her 21st among the greatest American film actresses of all time.
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