A visual homage to Oscar-winning Italian actress Sophia Loren.
Sophia Loren’s life is a rags-to-riches story. Born Sofia Scicolone in Rome in 1934, she grew up fatherless in the Pozzuoli slums during World War II. By the 1960s, she was an international movie star, with an Oscar under her belt. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Sophia Loren portrays Honoria opposite Henri Vidal’s Aetius in “Attila” (1954), a historical drama about the barbarian leader. The Italian film, starring Anthony Quinn and directed by Pietro Francisci, was Loren’s biggest success in the 1950s. Loren and Quinn reunited on screen in 1960 as members of an Old West traveling theatrical group in “Heller in Pink Tights.” (Lionsgate / Lionsgate)
Sophia Loren and American actor Van Johnson arrive for the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival in April 1955.
(Associated Press)
The three leading actors of the Stanley Kramer production “The Pride and the Passion” are seen in this 1956 photo. From left, Sophia Loren, Frank Sinatra and Cary Grant.
(Associated Press)
Sophia Loren steps onto the tarmac at Los Angeles International Airport on July 30, 1957.
(Los Angeles Times)
Loren starred opposite John Wayne as their characters embarked on a treasure hunt in the Sahara Desert. Directed by Henry Hathaway, the one-time-only pairing came the same year as Loren’s U.S. debut in “The Pride and the Passion.”
(Courtesy Everett Collection )
Loren became an international star after signing a five-film deal with Paramount. Among the films was “Houseboat,” a romantic comedy starring Cary Grant in which she played the an ill-equipped maid to Grant’s character and his children after his wife died. (Pax TV)
Sophia Loren and her husband, Carlo Ponti, in Paris in 1959. Sophia caught the filmmaker’s eye when, at age 14, she placed in a beauty contest. Ponti, 22 years her senior, guided her to take acting classes and helped launch her career. They remained together until Ponti’s death in 2007. ( AFP/Getty Images)
Dean Martin and Sophia Loren at the Academy Awards ceremony on April 6, 1959.
(Harry Chase / Los Angeles Times)
Carlo Ponti guides Sophia Loren through the crowd at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. By the 1960s, Loren was completely a movie star, dazzling audiences on both sides of the Atlantic.
(Traverso / Traverso)
Sophia Loren and Eleonora Brown play a mother and daughter who are raped while trying to escape falling bombs in wartorn Italy in “Two Women.” Loren was originally cast as the daughter, but she fought to play the mother instead. Her performance earned her an Academy Award. (Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences)
Sophia Loren and Charlton Heston in “El Cid,” directed by Anthony Mann and produced by Samuel Bronston.
(Miramax Films)
Sophia Loren receives the best actress award for her work in “La Ciociara” and actor Anthony Perkins wins for best actor for “Goodbye Again” during the Cannes Film Festival in 1961.
(Associated Press)
French actor Yves Montand kisses the hand of Sophia Loren at La Napoule on the French Riviera in France, May 7, 1961, during a reception at the Cannes Film Festival in Loren’s honor.
(Associated Press)
Sophia Loren stars in “La Riffa” (“The Raffle”) the Vittorio de Sica-directed episode of the four-episode anthology film about love. Loren’s husband was a producer on the film in which she played Zoe, a sexy shooting-gallery operator who is offered up as a prize to the best shooter. (Cinecitta Press Office / EPA)
Smiling, Sophia Loren presses her hands into wet cement to leave her impression in true Hollywood fashion at a Grauman’s Chinese Theater ceremony on July 27, 1962.
(Los Angeles Times Archive / UCLA )
Sophia Loren is greeted upon arrival at Los Angeles International Airport by actor Macdonald Carey on April 7, 1963.
(Los Angeles Times)
Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni star in “Marriage Italian Style.”
(American Film Institute)
Sophia Loren and her husband, Carlo Ponti, during the 1960s in Paris.
(AFP/Getty Images)
Actress Farrah Fawcett–Majors, left, and actor Lee Majors are seen with Sophia Loren at a gala for the Prince of Wales in Beverly Hills on Oct. 27, 1977.
(Lennox McLendon / Associated Press)
Sophia Loren arrives at the Golden Globes on Jan. 30, 1977.
(Los Angeles Times)
Sophia Loren costars with Marcello Mastroianni, left, in “A Special Day.” The Italian-language film was set in Benito Mussolini’s Italy when the leader first met Adolf Hitler. Loren’s fascist husband leaves to witness the occasion and she befriends her homosexual neighbor played by Mastroianni. ()
Sophia Loren portrays her mother, Romilda, in “Sophia Loren, Her Own Story.”
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Sophia Loren arrives for the Oscars in Los Angeles on March 25, 1991.
(Anacleto Rapping / Los Angeles Times)
Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren in Robert Altman’s “Prêt-à-Porter.” The film, which was also distributed under the title “Ready to Wear,” showcased an ensemble cast rubbing shoulders with living legends in the fashion world. Loren’s performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination. (E. Georges / Miramax)
Walter Matthau, left, Jack Lemmon and Sophia Loren in the film “Grumpier Old Men.”
(Ron Phillips / Associated Press)
Sophia Loren plants a kiss on Charlton Heston after he presented her with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for her service to the art of filmmaking at the 1995 Golden Globes. Loren and Heston starred opposite one another in the 1961 film “El Cid.”
(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Sophia Loren and her younger son, Eduardo Ponti, attend a banquet in her honor. Loren’s older son is Carlo Ponti Jr.
(Alan Berliner / For The Times)
Sophia Loren arrives in Bottrop, June 29, 1996, for the opening ceremony of the then-Warner Bros. Movie World in Germany’s steel and coal region, the Ruhr Valley.
(Heinz Ducklau / Associated Press)
Sophia Loren talks with the managing director of Citizen Watch Germany Ltd., Willi K. Richter, left, during her visit to the Leipzig Clocks, Watches and Jewelry Trade Fair in Leipzig, Germany, on Aug. 30, 1997.
(Eckehard Schulz / Associated Press)
Sophia Loren and her son, director Edoardo Ponti, attend the gala screening of “Between Strangers,” directed by Ponti, during the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 13, 2002.
(Donald Weber / Getty Images)
Giorgio Armani, center, and Sophia Loren have some fun on stage with Steve Martin at the fashion show and inaugural “Rodeo Drive Walk of Style” event, honoring fashion designer Armani in Beverly Hills on Sept. 9, 2003.
(Stefano Paltera / For The Times)
Sophia Loren on stage during the Venice Film Festival, on Sept. 11, 2004.
(Claudio Onorati / European Pressphoto Agency)
Sophia Loren reemerges on the big screen in “Nine,” a musical based loosely on Italian director Federico Fellini‘s semi-autobiographical film “8 1/2.” The next year, Loren played her own mother in a made-for-TV biopic “My House Is Full of Mirrors.”
(The Weinstein Co.)
Sophia Loren in a scene from the movie “Human Voice.”
(American Film Institute)
Sophia Loren during a photo call for “Human Voice” at the Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2014.
(Alastair Grant / Associated Press)
Sofia Vergara, left, and Sophia Loren are seen backstage at the Dolby Theatre after a special tribute to Loren at the AFI Film Festival in Hollywood on Nov. 12, 2014.
