Share

Sophia Loren biography

2 photos

Quick Facts

  • NAME: Sophia Loren
  • OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Television Actress, Pin-up
  • BIRTH DATE: September 20, 1934 (Age: 77)
  • PLACE OF BIRTH: Rome, Italy
  • Originally: Sophia Villiani Scicolone
  • AKA: Sofia Lazzaro
  • AKA: Sofia Scicolone
  • ZODIAC SIGN: Virgo
more about Sophia

Best Known For

Sophia Loren is an Italian actress, one of Italy's most recognized women and its most famous movie stars.


Synopsis

Sophia Loren is a world-renowned Italian actress. Raised in poverty during World War II, she found her way out by playing an extra in the 1951 film Quo Vadis. The film Aida (1953), in which she lip-synched the singing of Renata Tebaldi, launched her career. She won an Oscar (the first actress to win for a non-English-speaking performance) for Ieri, oggi, domani in 1963.

Contents

Profile

Actress. Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Villani Scicolone on September 20, 1934 in Rome, Italy. Her father, Riccardo Scicolone, considered himself a "construction engineer," but in fact he spent most of his time hanging around the fringes of show business, hoping to romance young actresses. Sophia Loren's mother, Romilda Villani, was one of them. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Greta Garbo, Villani had once been offered a trip to the United States to play Garbo's body double, but her mother refused to let her go. After Sophia Loren's birth, her mother took her back to her hometown of Pozzuoli on the Bay of Naples, which one travel book described as "perhaps the most squalid city in Italy." Although Riccardo Scicolone fathered another child by Villani, they never married. As Loren's mother put it, "That pig was free to marry me, but instead he dumped me and married another woman."

Although she would go on to be considered one of the most beautiful women in history, Sophia Loren's wet nurse remembered her as "the ugliest child I ever saw in my life." A quiet and reserved child, Loren grew up in extreme poverty, living with her mother and many other relatives at her grandparents' home, where she shared a bedroom with eight people. Things got worse when World War II ravaged the already struggling city of Pozzuoli. The resulting famine was so great that Loren's mother occasionally had to siphon off a cup of water from the car radiator to ration between her daughters by the spoonful. During one aerial bombardment, Loren was knocked to the ground and split open her chin, leaving a scar that has remained ever since.

Nicknamed "little stick" by her classmates for her sickly physique, at the age of 14 Loren blossomed, seemingly overnight, from a frail child into a beautiful and voluptuous woman. "It became a pleasure just to stroll down the street," she remembered of her sudden physical transformation. That same year, Loren won second place in a beauty competition, receiving as her prize a small sum of cash and free wallpaper for her grandparents' living room. In 1950, when she was 15 years old, Loren and her mother set off for Rome to try to make their living as actresses. Loren landed her first role as an extra in the 1951 Mervyn LeRoy film Quo Vadis. She also landed work as a model for various fumetti, Italian publications that resemble comic books but with real photographs instead of illustrations. After various bit parts and a small role in the 1952 film

ADVERTISEMENT
9386318 9386318
profile id: 9386318
profile name: Sophia Loren
profile occupation:
related profile id: 9386318
related profile name: Sophia Loren
related profile occupation:
related profile img: /imported/images/Biography/Images/Profiles/L/Sophia-Loren-9386318-1-402.jpg
related profile URL: /people/sophia-loren-9386318
profile
pop
Your Connections

Sign in with Facebook to see how you and your friends are connected to famous icons.

specific profile connection
Your Friends' Connections
specific friend connection
Profile Connections
    Show More Connections
    Included In These Groups

    See all related groups

    Celebrity Connections

    Show More Connections
    Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us!