The incomparable Sophia Loren, the most beautiful Italian woman, turned 86 today

Sophia Loren turns 86 on September 20. Congratulations to the most beautiful woman in Italy on her birthday and remember that from a young age to the present day, Sophia Loren struck with her beauty. Having won a beauty contest in Naples for the first time as a 14-year-old teenager, she was awarded the honorary title of the first beauty many times.

In 2006, at the age of 71, Sophia Loren was recognized as the most beautiful woman on the planet. In 2007, she was not afraid to shoot nude for the famous Pirelli calendar. But the cinema brought Sophia Loren worldwide fame. Having starred in more than 100 films, Sophia Loren is the winner of honorary awards at major film festivals.

Sophia Loren (born Sofia Villani Scicolone) was born in Rome on September 20, 1934.

Sofia's mother was Romilda Villani, a piano teacher and aspiring actress. In 1932, she passed a screen test to be a stand-in for Greta Garbo, but her film career was hindered by pregnancy.

Romilda Villani gave birth to a daughter by engineer Riccardo Scicolone in the hope that he would marry her. But he did not want to enter into a legal marriage with her, and the mother had to return to her hometown of Pozzuoli near Naples. Subsequently, Sophia Loren said in an interview: "I'm not Italian, I'm Neapolitan!"

Sofia's mother's hope that her daughter's father would marry her did not fade away, and she gave birth to his second daughter Anna Maria, but Romilda Villani remained a single mother with two daughters.

Sofia and her sister grew up in poverty. The future star and her little sister slept on the same mattress on the floor. The girls had no toys, and they made themselves dolls out of bread crumbs.

As a child, the beautiful Sophia Loren was a real ugly duckling. Skinny and leggy, she was not popular among her peers. The offensive nickname "Perch" stuck to her, and she considered herself ugly.

However, the merits of the future movie star managed to see her mother - a former actress. Driven by the desire to embody in her daughter all her unfulfilled dreams of a brilliant acting career, she began to send her photos to beauty contests.

So at the age of 15, Sofia Shikolone received the first recognition in her life - second place at a beauty contest in Naples and the first fee in her life: several rolls of wallpaper, a kitchen tablecloth with napkins, 23 thousand lira (about $ 35) and a free ticket to Rome. In short, by then provincial standards — a ticket to life.

In 1950, she participated in the Miss Italy contest, where she received the Miss Elegance prize, established by the jury specifically for her. At this competition, the girl was noticed by the famous film producer Carlo Ponti, who at that time was 37 years old, and offered Sofia a 7-year contract.

The couple's relationship with an age difference of 22 years outgrew a simple collaboration, but they could not officially get married in Italy: Ponti was married, and in Catholic Italy at that time it was almost impossible to get a divorce.

In the end, on September 17, 1957, Ponti and Sophia Loren (Sofia took the pseudonym "Lauren" in 1953 at Ponti's insistence) secretly married in Mexico. Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren annulled this marriage in 1962 to avoid Ponti being accused of bigamy.

Carlo Ponti managed to divorce his first wife in 1965, but not in Italy, and France. Carlo Ponti and Sophia Loren officially married on April 9, 1966.

Few people know that the actress at first could not get pregnant, then she had two miscarriages. Sophie has been treated for infertility for several years. Lauren's treatment bore fruit, she gave birth to a son, Carlo Ponti Jr., and four years later a second son, Eduardo Ponti, was born.

The actress is fluent in English, French and Italian.

It was Carlo Ponti who made a world-class actress out of a provincial girl Sofia. At first, Ponti was not against Sophie being filmed naked, but in the early 1960s he bought all the films of young Lauren, where she was naked, so as not to spoil the reputation of Sophia Loren, already known by that time.

Lauren first attracted the attention of serious film critics in the film Vittorio de Sica "The Gold of Naples" (1954), in which she fell into her native element, playing an energetic Neapolitan shopkeeper. The roles of ordinary women from the people, whom she knew well in childhood and one of whom she could have become, succeeded her best and caused the most favorable reviews from critics.

Exactly de Sika fully discovered the acting talent of Sophia Loren. Almost all the most significant roles were played by her in the films of this director.

"I adored him," Sophia Loren confessed. —I loved him, our love story lasted 20 years, and the result was 14 films." The most significant works for the actress were "The Gold of Naples", "Chochara", "The Recluses of Altona", "Marriage in Italian".

Sophie opened up to the director from different sides. Her heroines surprised with their authenticity and vitality.

The pinnacle of Sophia Loren's acting skills was playing the role of the mother in "Chochara— - a neorealist film based on the novel by Alberto Moravia. In one of the climactic scenes, the heroine Lauren becomes a victim of gross violence. Lauren's acting expressiveness and organicity made such an impression on overseas film critics that she was awarded an Oscar for this role. This is the first time that the award in this category was awarded for a film shot not in English.

The archbishop once joked that although the Vatican does not approve of human cloning, he could make an exception for Sophia Loren.

For fifteen years, Sophia Loren has worked with the most popular actors and sex symbols of Hollywood: Anthony Perkins, Anthony Quinn, Clark Gable, Peter Sellers, Charlton Heston, Alec Guinness, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Marlon Brando, Peter O'Toole, Richard Burton and Jean Gabin.

Sophia Loren is distinguished by her wit, and some of her phrases have become popular in Italy, one of them is: "I owe everything I have to spaghetti."

In the second half of the 70s, Sophia Loren appears less and less in films, and since 1984 her roles have become quite isolated.

In the 90s, the actress starred with Marcello Mastroianni, with whom they made up one of the most famous duets in the history of cinema, in Robert Altman's film "High Fashion".

Later, the picture "Old Grumblers raged" was released.

The last work where the actress appeared before the audience was her son's painting "Just between Us" in 2002.

"If I was offered to star in the best, most important film in the world, which, however, could cause at least some harm to my personal life - to my spouse or mother, I would answer: No thanks. Because a movie is a movie, and life is my life," Lauren shared in one of her long-standing interviews.

In 1999, Sophia Loren was included by the American Film Institute in the list of the 25 greatest actresses in the history of cinema.

In the Etobicoke area in Toronto one of the streets is named after Sophia Loren.

In 2006, at the age of 71, Sophia Loren was recognized as the most beautiful woman on the planet. In addition, at that age, she was not afraid to shoot nude for the famous Pirelli calendar. This edition perpetuates the brightest beauties of our time, and at the age of no older than 40.

Sophia Loren is the winner of various awards at all film festivals: Cannes, Venice, Moscow, Berlin. The actress is the winner of five Golden Globe Awards - in the special nomination "The Favorite of the world public".

Sophia Loren is the winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Foreign language film.

The actress has her own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

She is the winner of the honorary Academy Award with the wording "For a career rich in memorable roles that have given undiminished brilliance to cinema."