Sophia Loren is 80 years old, and still gorgeous! Check out some interesting facts about her life that made her into the icon she is today.
- Sophia Loren was born Sofia Villani Scicolone on September 20th 1934 in Rome, Italy.
- At 6-years-old Loren’s chin was cut by shrapnel during a bombing in World War II.
- Loren began her career at age 14 after entering the Queen of the Sea beauty contest in 1949. She came in second, and won a train ticket to Rome, where she began modeling and acting in B-movies.
- In the late 1950s Loren’s five-picture contract with Paramount launched her international career.
- Loren’s performance as Cesira in Vittorio De Sica’s Two Women earned her an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1962. This made her the first artist to win an Oscar for a foreign-language performance.
- In 1962 her marriage of almost five years to Carlo Ponti was annulled because neither the Vatican nor Italian law recognized Ponti’s 1957 divorce by proxy from Giuliana Ponti. Loren and Ponti were forced to annul their marriage after warrants for their arrest were issued.
- In 1965 Giuliana Ponti obtained a French divorce recognized by Italian law and the following year Loren and Ponti married for the second time until his death in 2007. (Loren and Ponti were cleared of bigamy charges by Rome’s criminal court in 1968)
- In 1982 Loren began a 30-day jail term for tax evasion (unpaid supplementary taxes for 1963-1964). She served 17 of her 30-day term.
- In addition to her Academy Award, Loren earned a Grammy Award, five special Golden Globes, a BAFTA Award, a Laurel Award, an Honorary Academy Award in 1991, and in 1995, the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement.
- She’s written three cookbooks
- Loren has two children, Carlo Ponti, Jr., 45, and Edoardo Ponti, 41.
Happy birthday to a living legend!
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