On This Day

Birthday of Sophia Loren

September 20th 1934

09:35 20 September 2024

Italian actress Sophia Loren was born on this day in 1934. By her late teens Loren had already played lead roles in a number of Italian feature films including 'La Favorita' (1952) and 'Aida' (1953). In 1956 she was given a five picture contract with Paramount which helped launch her International career and included the movies 'The Pride and the Passion' (1957) and 'Boy on a Dolphin' (1957).

From then on she divided her career between Hollywood and Europe and in 1960 starred in Vittorio De Sica's 'Two Women' for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress, the first time an actor or actress had won the Oscar for a foreign-language performance. Other notable film credits include 'El Cid' (1961), 'The Fall of the Roman Empire' (1964), 'Marriage Italian Style' (1964), 'Operation Crossbow' (1965), 'Arabesque' (1966), 'A Countess from Hong Kong' (1967), 'Man of La Mancha' (1972), 'The Voyage' (1974), 'The Cassandra Crossing' (1976), 'Brass Target' (1978), 'Firepower' (1979), 'Pret-a-Porter' (1994), 'Grumpier Old Men' (1995) and 'Nine' (2009).

More recently she returned to feature length films and won the AARP and AWFJ Best Actress awards for playing Holocaust survivor Madame Rosa in 'The Life Ahead' (2020) directed by her son Edoardo Ponti. Happy Birthday Sophia.