Sophia Loren was Lauren Laverne’s celebrity guest on BBC Radio Four’s Desert Island Discs this morning. But who is the famous actress and how much money does she have in the bank?
Sophia Loren has a whopping net worth of $75million, according to CelebrityNetWorth.com.
It’s a massive fortune that is currently equivalent to around £53.5million.
Sophia is known for being one of Hollywood’s greatest actors and was named by the American Film Institute as the 21st greatest female star of Classic Hollywood Cinema.
She is the only living actress and highest ranked living person mentioned on the list.
Sophia was born in 1934 in the Italian capital of Rome as Sophia Villani Scicolone.
Growing up, Sophia lived with her mother and sister at her grandmother’s house in Pozzuoli, near Naples.
At age 15, Sophia entered the Miss Italia beauty pageant and was selected as one of the last three finalists, winning the title of ‘Miss Elegance 1950’.
The star first appeared on-screen when she was 16 years old in American director Mervyn LeRoy’s 1951 film Quo Vadis.
Afterward, she gained minor roles in several Italian films with the help of Italian film producer Carlo Ponti.
Sophia met Carlo when she was 16 and he was 37.
He later become the star’s husband in 1966 until his death in 2007.
Carlo was the one to change Sophia’s public image and name to Loren.
The actress’ first starring role as Sophia Loren was in the 1953 Italian film Aida.
She later went on to play leading roles in Two Nights with Cleopatra and The Gold of Naples – the latter film, directed by Vittorio De Sica in 1954, often being seen as her breakthrough role.
Sophia became an international sensation following a five-picture contract with Paramount Pictures in 1958.
One of her most famous Hollywood films around this time was 1958 American romantic comedy Houseboat, which she starred in alongside Cary Grant.
In 1960, Sophia appeared in another Italian film by Vittorio De Sica, Two Women, which earned her the Cannes Film Festival’s best performance prize and an Academy Award for Best Actress.
Sophia was one of the most famous actors in Hollywood during the 60s, and made headlines in 1964 when she received $1million to appear in The Fall of the Roman Empire, alongside Alec Guinness and Christopher Plummer.
Some of her other well-known films include It Started in Naples, which also starred Clark Gable, The Voyage, where she was paired with Richard Burton, and Charlie Chaplin’s last film, Arabesque, which also featured Gregory Peck.
In 1991, Sophia received the Academy Honorary Award for her contributions to world cinema and in 1995, was awarded the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award.
She has continued to act since Hollywood’s Golden Age, appearing in Rob Marshall’s Nine in 2009, alongside Daniel Day-Lewis, and more recently, starring in Italian drama film The Life Ahead, which was released on Netflix in November last year.
As well as for her films, Sophia is also famous for her elegance and style, and has an enviable jewellery collection said to be worth millions.
