19 inspiring facts about Sophia Loren

Actually, I wanted to write about the lessons you can learn from Sophia Loren (pronounced Lorén, with the accent on the last syllable), such as staying true to your country (she has made American films but always preferred Italy over Los Angeles) and knowing that not winning does not equal losing. For instance, a beauty contest she did not win (how is that possible?) was the reason for her to start acting. But her life is long and rich, so that calls for a list of facts.

1. Peter Sellers was so in love with Loren during the filming of The Millionairess that he spontaneously divorced his wife, while according to Sophia, nothing romantic had taken place between them.

2. Sophia Loren was initially supposed to play the role of Alexis in Dynasty.

3. She spent eighteen days in prison for tax evasion.

4. She was fifteen when she met her husband Carlo Ponti. He was married and 37. Italian law did not recognize divorce, so the three of them (including Ponti's then-wife Giuliana Fiastri) applied for French citizenship, had the marriage annulled, and thus Sophia and Carlo could marry in 1966.

5. At that time, she missed Italy so terribly that Carlo Ponti drove her to the Gotthard Pass so she could look at her homeland.

6.  She had two miscarriages before giving birth to her sons.

7. She remained with her husband until his death.

8.  She is, of course, a rare beauty, but in most films, she was cast for her humor and timing, the majority being comedies.

9.  Her most recent film (La vita davanti a sé, now available on Netflix) was directed by their son.

10. She was the first female star with her own perfume line.

11. Her real name is Sophia Villani Scicolone, her first stage name was Sofia Lazzaro.

12. She turns 87 this year.

13.  She won an Oscar in the Best Actress category for La ciociara and won a total of 45 film awards.

14. She grew up in poverty and had to share her bed with her sister and mother.

15. Because her parents were not married, her sister did not receive her father's surname. Sophia used the money from her first film to buy her sister their father's surname.

16. That sister, Anna, later married the brother of Benito Mussolini, but that's beside the point.

17. Her regular Italian co-star was Marcello Mastroianni, with whom she worked for forty years; if only those two could have made children... But Marcello did that with Catherine Deneuve, also not a bad choice.

18. Gary Grant also proposed to her, and she rejected him as well.

19. Do you want a bit of Sophia in your daily life? She made a cookbook: Cooking con amore.