Dixon Kathryn - Sophia Loren

Published by TAJ Books International LLC 2013
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All notations of errors or omissions (author inquiries, permissions) concerning the content of this book should be addressed to , Felipealvarez, and the authors: Sam Shaw for Sophia Loren: In the Cameras Eye, and Warren G. Harris for Sophia Loren: A Biography.

ISBN 978-1-84406-265-2

Printed in China

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SOPHIA LOREN

S ophia Loren, with a career spanning six decades, is without doubt one of the grandes dames of cinema, but she was not limited to that accomplishment. She has acted in numerous television roles, authored multiple cooking and beauty books, and recorded several chart-topping musical hitsbut never acted on stage because of stage fright. Her face has sold millions of magazinesfrom the ribald European tattler sheets to the very tame Ladies Home Journal, and her personal and professional life has been profiled in book form, television interviews, television documentaries and autobiographical drama.

As a singer, Sophia enjoyed a Top 5 hit with Peter Sellers for their Goodness Gracious Me duet to promote The Millionairess. In 2004, Sophia was co-winner of a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for the combined performance of Prokofievs Peter and the Wolf and Beintuss Wolf Tracks. In 1992 her international status was recognized when she accepted the role of United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, visiting Kenya to increase public attention on the refugees from Somalia, wracked by drought and famine.

Sophia rubbed elbows, albeit briefly, with two of the biggest personalities of recent historyJack Kennedy, when still a Massachusetts senator, and Elvis Presleyand co-starred in the 1950s and 1960s, the heyday of her career, with the major male stars of her dayMarcello Mastroianni, Jean Paul Belmondo, Maurice Chevalier, Omar Sharif, Peter Sellers, Richard Burton, John Wayne, Anthony Quinn, Cary Grant, Paul Newman, Clark Gable, Marlon Brando, and Daniel Day-Lewis. Surprisingly, her pairing on film with many of her co-stars did not ignite the fire that burned so vividly in her off-screen persona and consequently triggered several expensive flops. Among those who doused her flame were Anthony Quinn, which whom she made three films early in her career; Anthony Perkins, Charlton Heston, Alan Ladd, Clark Gable, and Marlon Brando.

Sofia Villani Scicolone, as Sophia Loren was christened, is Italys most famous actress. She was the first Best Actress Oscar winner to reach that pinnacle in a non-English speaking part and she has won a hatful of top awards including a BAFTA, seven Bambis, six Davids for Best Actress, four Henrietta Golden Globe Awards as World Film FavoriteFemale as well as many awards for lifetime achievement including a career Academy Award in 1991, an Honorary Csar in 1991, an Honorary Golden Berlin Bear in 1994, a career Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1998, the Pietro Bianchi Award in 2002, a career David in 1999, the Cecil B. DeMille award at the Golden Globes in 1995, a Bambi Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, as well as a star on the Walk of Fame at 7050 Hollywood Boulevard.

At the peak of her acting prowess in the 1950s and 1960sthe Hollywood Foreign Press Association gave Sophia the Golden Globe for World Film Favorite in 1964, 1965, and 1969 because of her outstanding versatility in epics such as El Cid with Charlton Heston; in thrillers such as Arabesque alongside Gregory Peck; in disaster movies such as The Cassandra Crossing; in comedies such as Charlie Chaplins last directorial outing, A Countess from Hong Kong, with Marlon Brando; and in gritty neorealistic films such as her standout role in Two Women.

It is not uncommon for a movie star of Sophia Lorens stature to receive a small statue (such as an Oscar), but it is quite uncommon to be honored with a life-size or larger statueand Sophia has been honored with two! The first was a 22.9-foot-high likeness of her by sculptor Assen Peikov that was erected on Fiumicino beach near Rome in 1955. Ten years later, Sophia unveiled a life-sized waxwork of herself at the Muse Grvin in Paris. Obviously, she mesmerized many with her beauty, sexuality, and vibrancy. The very witty playwright, singer, and composer Nol Coward felt the love too when he charmingly exclaimed, She should have been sculpted in chocolate truffles, so that the world could have devoured her!

Fashion designer Gianfranco Ferre characterized her this way: Sophia Lorens beauty is indisputable, but thats surely not the only reason for her popularity. Speaking about Sophia Loren, Ive often happened to call her the last true diva in the best sense of the word, a great actress who is also a wonderful woman, sweet and strong, rich in temperament, intelligent, witty, funqualities which, moreover, are reflected in her talent and in her performances. Sophia isnt loved because she is beautiful. She is loved because shes real.

Sophia adores high fashion and it reciprocates. All of her life she has appeared in Paris and Milan for the runway shows of her favorite designers, principally Dior. In 1970 Sophia was included in the dozen women named to the U.S. Best-Dressed List by a poll of fashion editors. But this was only one of several fashion-related accolades she has received in her lifetime.

The mutual admiration of haute couture and Sophia Loren was front and center in 1994s Prt--Porter (Ready to Wear) in which Sophia, Marcello Mastroianni, and Kim Basinger frolic through a comedy that is set in the Parisian fashion world. This was the 12th and last time Sophia and Marcello starred together on film. Sophia was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for Prt--Porter. Sophias wardrobe for the film was designed by Gianfranco Ferr, Diors stylistic director, who enthused that she is a woman any designer would love dressing.she has a perfect grasp of what makes the most of her figure and thus is able to choose her clothes with great confidence.

On the set of Legend of the Lost, 1957

Sophia celebrates her 27th birthday on September 20, 1961