Sophia Loren – Italian/French

Sofia Villani Scicolone was born in a Rome charity ward for unwed mothers on September 20, 1934. As an actress, she went by the screen names Sofia Lazzaro and Sofia Scicolone before settling on Sophia Loren. In her first film in the United States, she didn’t have any lines. Loren appeared in Quo Vadis? as an uncredited extra.

When she was 16, she met Carlo Ponti at a beauty pageant he was judging. However, Loren and Ponti’s marriage got annulled after some legal disputes in 1962. Loren then married Giuliana Ponti in 1957, but the Vatican and Italian law refused to accept his separation by proxy. Loren ended up giving up her Italian citizenship in the process. In 1964, Loren and Ponti traveled to France and became French citizens. Carlo’s ex-wife, Giuliana, then secured a French separation with the help of her lawyers, allowing Loren and Ponti to remarry legally. Loren’s Oscar win for Best Actress in a Foreign Language Film was the first time an actress in a foreign-language film was awarded an Academy Award in that category.