Sofia Loren is a legendary Italian actress known for her work in several hit movies, including Two Women, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, Sunflower, The Life Ahead, Houseboat, Grumpy Old Men, A Special Day, Marriage Italian Style, Operation Crossbow, The Miller’s Beautiful Wife, Firepower, Two Nights with Cleopatra, Too Bad She’s Bad, The Fall of a Roman Empire, Brief Encounter, More Than a Miracle, The Pride and Passion, and A Breath of Scandal.
Loren was born in September 1934 in the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome, Italy. She had a rough childhood as her father abandoned her mother and Sofia because he was of ‘noble descent’ and refused to marry Sofia’s mother, Villani.
She began her career as a beauty pageant at the age of 15 and entered the Miss Italia Beauty Competition in 1950 was assigned as candidate no. 2 among the four contestants who represented the Lazio region. Loren won the title of Miss Elegance in 1950.
A year later, Sofia stepped foot in the film industry and appeared as an uncredited extra in Mervyn LeRoy’s 1951 film Quo Vadis. She was only 16 at the time and started taking more minor roles in movies to kickstart her acting career.
Lores’s breakthrough role was in The Gold of Naples in 1954, a film directed by Vittorio De Sica, and from there onwards, she went on to star in multiple top-charting films, including La Bella Mugnaia, Scandal in Sorrento, Lucky to Be a Woman, Boy on a Dolphin, Legend of the Lost and The Pride and the Passion.
In 1960 Sofia starred in Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first-ever actor to win an Oscar for a non-English-language performance.
By the mid of 1960s, Sophia was one of the most prominent actresses in the world who was making films in the United States of America and Europe. She is known as one of the greatest female actors in classical Hollywood cinema.
As for her love life, the veteran movie star married Italian film producer Carlo Ponti in 1957, who was 22 years older than her. The couple first met when Loren was only 15 and couldn’t help falling in love with her mentor, who taught her industry manners, encouraged her to learn English, and protected her.
The pair welcomed two children together, sons Carlo Ponti Jr. now 55, and another son Edoardo Ponti, now 50.
Her children also took after their talented mother in their choice of profession – her younger son, Edoardo, is a film director who married the American actress Sasha Alexander in 2007.
The couple welcomed two children – Lucia Sofia Ponti and Leonardo Fortunato Ponti.
Loren’s eldest granddaughter, Lucia Sofia Ponti, is now 17 years old and shares a striking resemblance with her iconic grandmother.
“I live for my family. I have the most beautiful grandchildren that I’ve ever seen in my life,” she said, adding, “I’m happy! I live a wonderful life,” Sofia told Al Roker on Today in 2016.
Lucia, who turns 17 this month, is currently on her way to discovering her passions and is quite taken with dance as she has been participating in the Radix Dance Competition for the last five years.
Last year, her mom, Sasha, wrote a touching message for her firstborn on her 16th birthday that read, “Happy Birthday to our Lucia! 15 today! She is taller than me, definitely more organized, a thinker, a dancer and a super funny human. What a difficult year it has been for all kids, but I must say I learned so much from Lucia and how she joyfully moved through it all. Bravo our love!”
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