Sophia Loren – bright star
Sophia Loren is an Italian actress and singer. Her acting career has covered over 50 years and more than 100 films. She is a winner of all major film festivals – Cannes (1961), Venice (1958, 1998, 2002), Moscow (1965, 1997), Berlin (1994). The actress is a winner of five Golden Globe awards and the first winner of Oscar for best actress in a foreign language movie (1962).
Sofia Villani Scicolone (her real name) was born on September 20, 1934 in Rome. She was the illegitimate child of Romilda Villani and Riccardo Scicolone. Shortly after her birth the family moved to a small fishing town of Pozzuoli, near Naples, where the girl spent her childhood and youth. Her mother, Sofia, and eventually her sister Maria, lived with her maternal grandparents, aunts and uncles in a two room apartment. At the age of 14 she won the local beauty contest after which the family moved to Rome. In 1950, Sophia participated in Miss Italy contest and received Miss Elegance prize. Soon Sophia met producer and her future husband Carlo Ponti, who was twenty-two years older than her. Ponti was married and it was very difficult to get a divorce for a Catholic. So, Carlo and Sophia secretly married in Mexico. Over time, when he finally got the long-awaited divorce, he remarried Sophia on April 9, 1966. Initially, the actress starred under the name Sofia Lazarro, but in 1953 she became Loren. In the early 1960s, Carlo Ponti bought all erotic movies with young Loren, in order to avoid an international scandal.
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