Sophia Loren

Born: September 1934
Where: Rome, Italy

It's difficult to believe the voluptuous star of The Black Orchid and Houseboat was once nicknamed "the stick" because she was so thin.

Born in extreme poverty, the illegitimate daughter of a frustrated actress, the young Loren was given her big break by her future husband Carlo Ponti, a judge in a beauty contest.

By 1954 she was an established name and vying with the well-established Gina Lollobrigida for roles and fans on both sides of the Atlantic.

After appearing in several American productions shot overseas, Loren arrived in Hollywood in the mid-1950s but her natural sensuousness was vulgarized by the artificial glamour treatment.

With a few exceptions like Houseboat with Cary Grant, Sidney Lumet's That Kind of Woman and The Black Orchid for which she received a Best Actress Award at Cannes, she was woefully miscast.

Nonetheless, over the next two decades Loren occasionally demonstrated and range to transcend her pin-up status and once again won an award at Cannes as well as a Best Actress Oscar for her memorable performance in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women.

Loren worked steadily throughout the 60s in forgettable projects with some of the industry's most celebrated directors, most of whom were unfortunately past their prime, including Michael Curtiz, Anatole Litvak and Charles Chaplin.

Her only true standout roles were in Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow with Loren doing the famous bedroom striptease scene, and Marriage Italian-Style.

In the 70s, Loren continued to get work offers but performed primarily in Europe and appeared mostly in uneven productions including the disastrous adaptation of the stage musical Man of la Mancha.

During the 80s Loren made only a few feature films while she raised her teenaged sons by Ponti, but she did perform in several American TV-movies.

She was awarded a second, honorary Oscar in 1990 and in 1994 Loren returned to US films in Robert Altman's much ballyhooed but disappointing take on the French fashion scene Pret-a-Porter.

She subsequently brought a warm, friendly presence and her sensuous, distinctive beauty to the middle-aged antics of the popular and unassuming if derivative sequel film, Grumpier Old Men in 1995.

Recently, she appeared in Between Strangers with Gerard Depardieu and Mira Sorvino.