Quick Facts
- NAME: Sophia Loren
- OCCUPATION: Film Actress, Television Actress
- 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
Best Known For
Sophia Loren is an Italian actress, one of Italy's most recognized women and its most famous movie stars.
Sophia Loren. (2012). Biography.com. Retrieved 01:06, Feb 07, 2012 from http://www.biography.com/people/sophia-loren-9386318
Sophia Loren [Internet]. 2012. http://www.biography.com/people/sophia-loren-9386318, February 07
" Sophia Loren." 2012. Biography.com 07 Feb 2012, 01:06 http://www.biography.com/people/sophia-loren-9386318
' Sophia Loren', Biography.com,(2012) http://www.biography.com/people/sophia-loren-9386318 [accessed Feb 07, 2012]
" Sophia Loren," Biography.com, http://www.biography.com/people/sophia-loren-9386318 (accessed Feb 07, 2012).
Sophia Loren [Internet]. Biography.com; 2012 [cited 2012 Feb 07]. Available from: http://www.biography.com/people/sophia-loren-9386318.
Sophia Loren, http://www.biography.com/people/sophia-loren-9386318 (last visited Feb 07, 2012).
Sophia Loren, http://www.biography.com/people/sophia-loren-9386318 (last visited Feb 07, 2012).
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.
Profile
(born September 20, 1934, Rome, Italy) Italian film actress who rose above her poverty-stricken origins in postwar Naples to become universally recognized as one of Italy's most beautiful women and its most famous movie star.
Before working in the cinema, Sofia Scicolone changed her name to Sofia Lazzaro for work in the foto-romanzo, popular pulp magazines that used still photographs to depict romantic stories. Her first film role was as an extra, one of many slave girls in the American production of Quo Vadis? (1951). Under the tutelage of producer Carlo Ponti (her future husband), Sofia Scicolone was transformed into Sophia Loren. Her career was launched in a series of low-budget comedies before she attracted critical and popular attention with Aida (1953), in which she lip-synched the singing of Renata Tebaldi in the title role.
Loren's beauty often overshadowed her enormous talents as an actress, but her earthy charisma is evident even in such early works as Vittorio De Sica's L'oro di Napoli (1954; The Gold of Naples). With Ponti's help, Loren increased her international visibility by appearing in Hollywood films opposite such major stars as Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Frank Sinatra, Alan Ladd, William Holden, and Paul Newman. Such exposure was undoubtedly instrumental in helping her win an Oscar for best actress in De Sica's La ciociara (1961; Two Women), in which she delivered a powerful performance as the courageous mother of a teenage girl during World War II.
Two other De Sica films showcased her comic talents and paired her with another Italian film icon, Marcello Mastroianni: Ieri, oggi, domani (1963; Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow), a film that earned an Oscar for best foreign film; and Matrimonio all'italiana (1964; Marriage, Italian Style). The best performance of her late career, again with Mastroianni, was for director Ettore Scola in Una giornata particolare (1977, A Special Day). Loren's subsequent work included the television movie
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