ADSactly Hollywood Legends: Sophia Loren, the last living goddess

in #culture5 years ago

Few are the girls who never dreamed of becoming an actress, a movie star, a Hollywood icon. Even fewer are the girls who never swooned over a hot movie star. Whether we like it or not, Hollywood is still the film-making capital of the world, and if you look at many of today’s starlets you would believe that all it takes is a nice face and a lot of well-placed silicone. However, Hollywood became the stuff of dreams decades ago when the movie stars were larger than life. This series is about the Golden Era of Hollywood and the legends on whose blood, sweat and talent the success of the modern film industry was built upon.


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Whoever invented the saying ‘beauty is only temporary’ obviously had not met Sophia Loren, Italy’s most famous actresses and one of the most beautiful women in the world. One of the few stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age still alive today, Sophia Loren has aged gracefully and is still considered the ‘soul of elegance’.
Her life story is as extraordinary as her beauty. Born in 1934, to an unwed mother, a grave sin in Catholic Italy, Sofia Villani Sciccolone spent her childhood in the impoverished south, near Naples, and suffered all the terror and deprivations of World War II. At night, her family hid from air raids in rat-infested tunnels, while during the day, her mother, Romilda, had to forage food for her two daughters. An ugly duckling, nicknamed ‘Toothpick’ for her skinny appearance, the girl started to blossom after hitting 14. When her mother entered her into a beauty contest, they had to pull down the pink curtains to make her a dress, while her worn-out black shoes were painted white. Yet, she won a ticket to Rome, where her life changed completely.


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At the age of 15, Sofia was a diamond in the rough and she was lucky producer Carlo Ponti recognized her potential and also fell in love with her.
He was the one to polish her image, change her name to Sophia Loren and help her get better parts. He was 38 and a married man, which is why their relationship was very discreet. Her first starring role was in an Italian movie ’Aida’ (1953), based on Verdi’s classical opera. She made many movies over the next few years, becoming a star in Italy, but Ponti urged her to go to Hollywood. He also made her study English and she became fluent in record time.


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In 1956, Ponti got her a role in Stanley Kramer’s ’The Pride and the Passion’ in which she would star with Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant. While filming in Spain, Sophia Loren and Cary Grant fell in love with each other and it wasn’t long until the American actor started talking about marriage. Years later, Sophia Loren would explain she ended up choosing the Italian Ponti as he was part of her world and she realized she needed her native soil to thrive. She also admitted she saw in him the father-figure she had lacked all her childhood. It was her dream as well as her mother’s for Sophia to be legally married and have a real family. In 1957, Ponti got a divorce in Mexico and quickly married Sophia, by proxy, the two being represented by lawyers. Ironically, at the time news of her marriage broke she was again filming with Cary Grant, who took the blow like a man and congratulated her. The only scene they still had to film for ’Houseboat’ was the wedding of their characters. If she got the white-dress wedding on set, in real life things were about to turn very ugly as the Catholic Church would not accept the divorce obtained in Mexico, nor the marriage. In the eyes of the Church, Sophia and Carlo were public sinners, threatened with excommunication. While not a devout Catholic, Sophia Loren was reduced to tears when she heard the news. They were forced to live in exile, while on their short trips to Italy they had to be very careful not to appear to be living together. Sophia could not bring the shame of being excommunicated upon her family, especially her mother. In 1962, they got their Mexican marriage annulled and moved to France where they obtained the citizenship which would allow Carlo Ponti to finally get a divorce and once again marry Sophia, in 1966. This time for good and despite the age difference they remained together until Ponti’s death in 2007.


With husband Carlo Ponti, at the birth of their first son, Carlo Jr., in 1968.
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One of Sophia Loren’s greatest movie was the 1960 ’La Ciociara’ (Two Women), directed by Vittoria De Sica. She plays the part of a widowed mother who has to protect her teenage daughter in war-torn Italy. A part she did not need to learn, but remember, as she had lived through those terrible times. The movie brought her an Oscar, the first time the award went to a foreign language film and to an Italian actress, and many more prizes at all the major film festivals around the world.


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“When you see the film, when I throw the stone and I kneel down and cry in anguish—even if you don’t know what the film is about, you cry. Before I made ‘Two Women’, I was a performer. Afterward, I was an actress.”

Of all the leading men she worked with, her best partner was Italian legend Marcello Mastroiani, with whom she made over 40 movies. They were wonderful together in the 1963 ’Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow’ or the 1964 ’Marriage Italian Stye’. In 1994, Robert Altman reunited them on screen one last time in the comedy ’Pret-A-Porter’.
All her co-stars fell under her spell. Richard Burton, who made two films with her, once said:

“Beautiful brown eyes set in a marvelously vulpine, almost satanic face. Stupendously intelligent. Beat me at Scrabble twice. In English yet. See her move, swaying like rain.”

Peter O’Toole, who played with her in ‘Man from La Mancha’, recalled their time together like this:

“The more I was with Sophia, the more edible she looked.”

And even The Rolling Stones wrote a song about her, ‘Pass the wine (Sophia Loren)’.

Unlike many stars who tend to shun the limelight as they grow older, Sophia Loren continued to work into the 21st century. In 2002, she appeared in ’Between Strangers’, movie written and directed by her youngest son Edoardo Ponti. In 2016, she filmed as herself in a TCM documentary on her life.


Timeless beauty.
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Although she still has a house near Naples, at present, Sophia Loren spends most of her time at her Swiss residence, where she and Ponti moved decades ago for tax purposes. However, she is still seen as Italy’s most famous face and a national treasure. The Italians refer to her simply as ‘La Loren’, The Loren, the one and only.

Post authored by @ladyrebecca.
References: Britannica, Vanity Fair.

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Sofia Loren is one of my favorite actresses, and one of those women who becomes the object of desire. Her sensuality and voluptuousness are iconic to me. I remember her particularly in several of the films she starred in, especially those with Marcello Mastroianni. But the film that I liked the most with both of them is A particular day ("Una giornata particolare") by Ettore Scola. Your post, in addition to containing good information, is illustrated with great photos. Thank you, @ladyrebecca.

Yes, Sophia Loren truly is the one and only. And when I think about the most famous Italian actress she is always my first thought. And though she is/was a phenomenal actress I adore her cooking book as well, is full of wonderful stories not only from her life but mostly about the history of each dish, dessert.

I truly admire her as a human being.
As always your post provides a lot of good and interesting information.
Cheers for that.

I must acknowledge my fascination with Italian cinema. Italian and French are my favourites. I find Italian actresses imposing, with a wild, exotic and unique beauty. Sofia Loren and Monica Bellucci are proof of what I'm saying. I remember Loren in the great comedy Italian Marriage, one of her most successful films. Here he meets De Sica behind the cameras and Mastroianne in front of them. I didn't know the details of her childhood and her clandestine love affair with a man who was married and much older than her. Like many, I think Sofia Loren and pizza are the most well-known and beloved things in Italy. To be in tune: Ci vediamo la prossima volta, @ladyrebecca!

Sofia Loren and pizza are the most well-known and beloved things in Italy.

Chianti wine is also great! :))

Excellent biography of one of the most beautiful women in the world and also a great actress. A moving and inspiring life story. Sophia Lorent's unfading beauty is impressive. Thank you, @ladyrebecca for another interesting publication of Hollywood legends. Thanks to @adsactly for spreading it.

Interesting life story of S. Loren. Getting up from extreme poverty is not easy and she with her beauty and talent could do it. Call the attention that such a beautiful woman, working in a world as moved as the cinema, has kept her marriage for so many years. Good post.

I can't say I remember howgood of an actress Sofia Loren was. I just remember her eyes, the most amazing eyes I have seen in cinema.
Great post. It provides interesting iformation about this fascinating woman.
Even "breaking protocol" at the Oscars to annouce Roberto Benigni's winning, she looked charming! :)

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