From "Oscar" to "Palme d'Or": Cinema Legend Sophia Loren Celebrates 90th Birthday
The icon of Italian and world cinema, Sophia Loren, celebrated her 90th birthday on one of the most beautiful terraces in the capital, the 900-square-metre Anantara Palazzo Naiadi terrace with incomparable views of Rome. According to the Corriere della Sera, this is the Oscar-winning actress's Roman home. The private party, scheduled for 20 September 2024, was attended by 150 people, including family, friends and some of Sophia Loren's closest colleagues.
An Italian actress with French citizenship, Sophia Loren has become one of the world's most famous and influential actresses since the 1960s. She charmed Hollywood with her beauty and ability to masterfully interpret roles from comedy to drama.
Sofia Villani Schicolone was born in Rome on 20 September 1934 and had a very difficult childhood. During the Second World War, her family moved to a town near Naples, where life was cheaper, due to lack of money. Here Sophie spent her childhood and youth and saw the war with her own eyes. But in 1950, her life changed: at the age of fifteen, Sophia entered and won her first beauty contest. Thanks to the cash prize, she and her mother were able to return to Rome.
The title of Miss Elegance made her father complain about her alleged prostitution, but it also made directors and producers notice her for the first time.
Among them was the Franco-Italian film producer Carlo Ponti, who later became her husband. He offered Sophie a seven-year contract to star in his films. This began not only a professional partnership, but also a stormy love affair.
Ponty was 38 years old at the time, married and had two children. In 1956, he travelled to Mexico and obtained a divorce, which was still prohibited in Italy. In 1965, Ponti also officially divorced in France and married Sophie. Their marriage, in which they had two children, lasted until death separated them.
After the death of her husband, film producer Carlo Ponti in 2007, Sophia Loren returned to Italian television in 2010 in a film about her life, in which she played her own mother.
In 2014, at the age of 80, she published her memoirs, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow.
She last appeared in a film in 2020 in Life Ahead, directed by her son Edoardo Ponti.
In total, Sophia Loren has won 28 film awards and received 9 nominations. Among her awards are two Oscars, five Golden Globe Awards, two awards at the Venice Film Festival, one award at the Cannes Film Festival, one award at the Berlin Film Festival, eleven David di Donatello Awards, four Nastri d'Argento Awards, one Bafta Award and one Cesar Award.
On Sophia Loren's 90th birthday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella made the following statement: ‘On the occasion of her birthday, I would like to convey to her my most sincere wishes, together with the gratitude of the Republic for her extraordinary career as a film actress, marked by the awarding of numerous prestigious national awards.’