Sophia Loren (born September 20, 1934) is an Academy Award winning Italian film actress. She is widely considered to be the most popular Italian actress of her time.

She is the illegitimate child of Romilda Villani and Riccardo Scicolone. Sophia grew up in the slums of Pozzuoli, just outside Naples. After insignificant parts in Luci del varietà (1950) and Quo Vadis (1951), she met movie-director Carlo Ponti, some 22 years her senior, whom she later married. Perhaps he was the father figure she never experienced as a child. In 1961, she received an Academy Award for Ciociara, La (1960) ("Two Women"). This beautiful lady became one of the major sex symbol of the sixties, competing with Marilyn Monroe, Brigitte Bardot and Jane Fonda. She was a very close friend of Cary Grant. She gained wider respect with her later movies like Cassandra Crossing, The (1976), Giornata particolare, Una (1977) and Prêt-à-Porter (1994). A lot of her movies were produced by her husband. In many of her movies, she played together with Marcello Mastroianni.