Sophia 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 hits—but never acted on stage because of stage fright. Her face has sold millions of magazines—from 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. Sofia Villani Scicolone, as Sophia Loren was christened, is Italy’s most famous actress. She was the first Best Actress Oscar winner to reach that pinnacle in a non-English speaking part for her role in Two Women , and she has won almost too many awards to list both in the U.S. and in her native Europe. She enjoyed a lifetime of love and support from her husband, Carlo Ponti. The mother of two sons and the grandmother of four, Sophia Loren is an inspiration to all women both professionally and personally. Perhaps symbolically, her last major film role was in the musical Nine where she appeared in the role of Mamma, a sophisticated and attractive woman of a certain age for all the ages.
