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Entertainment
Italian beauty
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The legendary star Sophia Loren turned 70 recently. RANDOR GUY writes ...
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Sophia Loren ... a cult figure of her times.
THE GLAMOROUS women from Hollywood, whose names are indelibly etched in public memory, include Clara Bow, Theda Bara, Gloria Swanson, Jean Harlow and Marilyn Monroe to name a few. Outside Hollywood, there have not been many sex symbols and those who joined that exclusive club came mainly from Italy. France did give the world Brigitte Bardot but she did not last long. From Italy came Gina Lollobrigida, who was soon substituted by Sophia Loren, the sexiest of them all. Sophia Loren turned 70 recently. She also proved that she had talent.
Tough childhood
She was born Sofia Scicolone in Rome on September 20, 1934. She and her mother lived in abject poverty, with soldiers adding to their woes, in the war-torn slums of Naples. Her mother was not legally married to her father. Though he abandoned the family, he permitted the daughter to use his surname. As she grew up, the `Matchstick!' (as she was nicknamed) soon filled out. She entered beauty contests, winning quite a few and later became a successful model. Her looks attracted men from the Italian film world and she appeared in many movies in minor parts. One such film was the Hollywood spectacle "Quo Vadis" (1951, shot in Rome) in which she was one of the slave girls. The crowning in a beauty contest in Rome brought her to the notice of the Italian movie mogul Carlo Ponti (born 1913) who took her under his wings. He engaged professional coaches to train her in acting and dialogue delivery and at first he cast her in small roles like in the hit film "Anna" (1951). Ponti gave her a new name, Sofia Lazzaro! In 1952, the Italian producer cast her in a bigger role in "La Favorita." He gave her another new name, Sophia Loren that would bring her international fame. As the 1950s rolled over, Loren began to make a name as a star and sex symbol proving a challenge to Gina Lollobrigida. Around this time some of her Italian films were dubbed in English and distributed around the world. Hollywood began to invade Rome taking advantage of the production facilities available there.
Enters Hollywood
So Carlo Ponti began to promote Sophia Loren in Hollywood and she played lead roles in two English films shot in Europe in 1957, "Boy on a Dolphin" (the male lead opposite her was tough guy Alan Ladd), and "The Pride and the Passion" (starring Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant). During its shooting in Spain, Cary Grant fell in love with Sophia and wooed her. But she was already in love with Carlo Ponti and married him during the same year (1957) in Mexico. Ponti had been married once before and was twenty-one years older than Sophia. Grant pursued her across two continents and also proposed marriage. But she rejected him. Then she also had problems with Sinatra. In 1960, Sophia faced another crisis in her personal life during the making of "The Millionairess." Adapted from a George Bernard Shaw play, it was directed by Anthony Asquith. Sophia was paired with Peter Sellers. He fell in love with her, which according to him was warmly reciprocated!
Few good films
Though she had appeared in about 100 movies only some of them are mention-worthy. The list includes "El Cid" (1961, opposite Charlton Heston), and"Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow" (1963). The movie won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Then there is "The Countess from Hong Kong" (1967). She was paired with Marlon Brando and it was directed by Charlie Chaplin. Her finest film was "The Two Women" (1960, and directed by Vittorio de Sica.) De Sica brought out the best in Sophia and she won the Oscar for Best Actress. During the 1970s she remained in her homeland to do Italian films and a couple of thrillers in Hollywood. Taking time off from the land of lens and lights, she worked on her autobiography, `Sophia — The Living and Loving: Her Own Story.' (1979). A TV movie was made on this book in which she played herself. She also wrote a book on Beauty and developed an exclusive perfume, which was named after her. She returned to the movies and Hollywood in 1994 with a successful comedy "Grumpier Old Men," a sequel to the earlier "Grumpy Old Men," featuring the two brilliant comedians, Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau. The sequel was a major hit with Sophia Loren playing an Italian widow. She received a Special Oscar in 1990 and the citation read, "one of our genuine treasures of world cinema who in a career rich with memorable performances has added permanent lustre to our art form." Sophia has two sons. One of them is a musician, and the other a filmmaker. In 2002, Sophia Loren returned to the Venice Film Festival, to promote the directorial debut film of her son, Edoardo Ponti. Talking of her sex appeal she said, "I owe it all to spaghetti! Sex appeal is only 50 per cent of what you have got; the other 50 per cent is what you do with it!"
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