Sophia Loren

Italian screen actress and lifelong beauty, considered by some as the world's eighth natural wonder. Sultry and haughty, with eyes like dark almonds and full female curves, she also epitomises style and wit, which along with her brilliant acting talent kept her in the forefront of films for over 50 years. Loren's performance as Cesira in Two Women (1960), directed by Vittorio De Sica, won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first performer to ever win an Oscar for a non-English-language performance.

Loren holds the record for having earned seven David di Donatello Awards for Best Actress. She has won five special Golden Globes (including the Cecil B. DeMille Award), a BAFTA Award, a Laurel Award, a Grammy Award, the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival and the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival. In 1991, she received the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievements. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her one of the greatest stars of American film history. In 1991, she received the Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievements. In 1999, the American Film Institute named her one of the greatest stars of American film history.

An illegitimate child, she grew up in a Naples slum in dire wartime poverty. Her mother, a frustrated actress, instilled star aspirations in the skinny little Sofia, nicknamed "the stick" at the time. At 14, she entered the first of several beauty contests. In 1949, she and her mother both appeared as extras in Quo Vadis as well as other films. In the "Miss Italy" contest, she won the title of "Miss Elegance." She was not quite 15 when she met Carlo Ponti, the producer, when he was the judge on a contest. He signed her to a contract and began her grooming for a film career.

Ponti was married and 21 years her senior, but it was the start of a lifelong partnership that produced most of her five dozen films and their two sons.