Sophia Loren is the ultimate movie star from Hollywood, known for her stunning looks and a life full of glamour.
Her journey to becoming famous was tough. She grew up in a poor family, and even after she became well-known, people still made negative comments about her appearance.
Today, we celebrate her as the most gorgeous woman to ever appear on our screens, and she still looks amazing at 90 years old.
It’s surprising to think that the woman who inspired so much music, rejected a marriage proposal from Cary Grant, and was the first actor to win an Oscar for a foreign-language film had such a different beginning.
Sofia Villani Scicolone was born in Rome in 1934. Her mom was a piano teacher and an actress who was so pretty that Hollywood noticed her. Sophia’s mom even won a contest for looking like the famous actress Greta Garbo, but her strict family didn’t let her chase her dreams of being in movies.
Instead, the mother would guide her daughter and help Sophia in her future film career.
Sophia grew up without the support of her father, who was also dad to her younger sister Maria but he refused to marry their mother and had no involvement in family life.
She shared with People Magazine, “I only met my dad six times throughout my life. He caused a lot of hurt and shame for my mom, who he tricked and then left. My little sister, Maria, also went through a lot because he wouldn’t acknowledge her as his daughter, and it affected me too.”
Growing up in a single-parent household was tough financially.
She grew up in really tough conditions, having to share a small bedroom with eight other people at her grandparents’ house and staying with other family members too, according to Direct Expose. Things got so difficult that Loren’s mom would occasionally take water from the car radiator to give to her daughters.
Sophia lived through World War II, during which she was knocked to the ground in one aerial raid and was struck by shrapnel, leaving her with a scar on her chin.
”I was a little girl, but the sound and the experiences of the war never, never leave you,” she once said..
She suffered from mites and lice and was bullied at school for being so skinny.
She became the amazing beauty we recognize today. After being a finalist in the Miss Italia 1950 beauty contest, she decided to go to the National Film School in Italy.
Still, her looks were criticized, and she was told her nose wasn’t right and she had to lose weight.
She said, “I have an interesting nose, and that’s why I’ve never changed it. When you’re really young, you have to let nature do its thing and shape your face and body. Over time, people start to realize that my nose is actually nicer than they first thought,” she shared with the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Her big break came playing an Ethiopian slave in the movie Aida when she was 19 years old, earning her critical acclaim.
Four years later, she acted alongside Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra in a movie called The Pride and the Passion. Then in 1960, she played a mother trying hard to take care of her daughter in the middle of a war in Rome in the film Two Women, which won her an Oscar.
Loren’s success didn’t end with just a few awards. She also earned five special Golden Globes, a Grammy Award, an Honorary Academy Award, and the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award for her lifetime achievements, among many others.
Marriage to Carlo Ponti
Her private life was plagued with stories of affairs and bigamy but she stayed married to Italian film producer Carlo Ponti for 50 years, until his death in 2007.
Sophia and Carlo met when she was just 16. He gave her a contract and became her mentor, helping her become a star in Italy by the time she turned 25.
We both fell in love the moment we saw each other. I was 16 and at a beauty contest in Rome when I first spotted him. He was one of the judges. I was sitting at a table with my friends when he sent me a note inviting me to join the contest, she explained.
Sophia and Carlo tied the knot in 1957, but Carlo’s earlier divorce was not recognized in Italy, and they got charged with bigamy. Carlo was 21 years her senior and he was still married to his first wife when they initially wed.
As a result, Sophias and Carlo’s marriage was annulled in 1962. The couple solved the issue by becoming French citizens and marrying legally.
They ended up having two boys: Carol Jr., who conducts an orchestra, and Eduardo, who makes movies. Now, Sophia is a proud grandmother of four grandkids.
Sophia’s love life has been in the spotlight many times; for example, she once turned down a marriage proposal from Cary Grant.
She was really beautiful, but she didn’t pay much attention to her looks. Instead, she concentrated on being herself and making sure her kids had a safe and loving home, something she wished she had when she was growing up.
“My character is my best feature,” she told the Telegraph newspaper. “I was really a nobody, a little girl, unhappy, in desperation because of the life I was living with my family and no father.”
There’s a lot we still haven’t figured out about this amazing actress since she destroys her personal diary every year. However, we do know that she really cares about her family and her career, and she’s still acting at the age of 90.
In 2020, Sophia Loren took on her first leading role in more than ten years. She starred in the American-Italian drama movie The Life Ahead, which was directed by her son, Edoardo Ponti. In this film, Sophia plays the character Madam Rosa, who is a Holocaust survivor and has a background as a sex worker.
”I [tapped] into my own experiences during the war and [found] Madame Rosa’s truth and honesty by uncovering my own,” Sophia said.
The Italian actress who won an Oscar is now also a businesswoman. She has two restaurants in Italy named after her, one located in Florence and the other in Milan. The Milan restaurant just opened in 2022, and Sophia was there for the grand opening.
Loren is quoted on the restaurant website saying, “I’ve had a lot of interests in my life, and one of the biggest is definitely food.”
”No director has ever managed to put me on a diet and I have never given up a good plate of pasta in favour of the figure.”
The career that this screen goddess has built for herself despite her tough childhood and the knockbacks she endured is inspirational.
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