-
01
In 1932, her mother won an all-Italy Greta Garbo lookalike contest run by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer but at 17 was not allowed to pursue her Hollywood dream; soon after she became pregnant with Sofia.
-
02
She hates beauty salons and does her hair and nails herself.
-
03
Due to stage fright, she never appeared in a theatrical production.
-
04
On June 22, 2005, she received an honorary citizenship in Pozzuoli, Italy; she gave up her Italian citizenship for French due to legal and tax problems.
-
05
She is the godmother of Drew Barrymore.
-
06
Until age 14, she was a skinny child nicknamed The Stick and Toothpick.
-
07
She is one of 14 Best Actress Oscar winners who did not accept their Academy Award in person; for Two Women 1960 the statuette was accepted by Greer Garson.
-
08
Male actors were sometimes hesitant to appear with her because she stands nearly 5′ 9 and wore towering heels and tall hair, making her look over six feet tall.
-
09
She attended the September 1992 funeral of former co-star Anthony Perkins.
-
10
She is one of five performers to win an Oscar playing a character that spoke mostly in a foreign language.
-
11
She had her marriage annulled to save Carlo Ponti from bigamy charges in Italy.
-
12
She first learned of her Oscar win for Two Women 1960 from Cary Grant, who called her home in Italy from Los Angeles.
-
13
For her 80th birthday on September 20, 2014, her son Carlo Ponti Jr. commissioned a symphony, Sinfonietta per Sofia, performed in Napa Valley.
-
14
Her mother named her after her paternal grandmother; when abandoned, her maternal grandmother called her Lella.
-
15
She did not get along with Marlon Brando during the shooting of A Countess from Hong Kong 1967 after he commented on her nose hairs during a love scene.
-
16
Her Best Actress Oscar for Two Women 1960 was stolen; the Academy replaced it for a small fee.
-
17
She had two miscarriages before her first son, requiring complete bed rest during successful pregnancies.
-
18
Her sister Maria Scicolone was once married to dictator Benito Mussolini’s son, Romano Mussolini.
-
19
She turned down roles on Dynasty 1981 and Falcon Crest 1981, which went to Joan Collins and Gina Lollobrigida.
-
20
Despite being Italian, she was dubbed by Lydia Simoneschi and Rita Savagnone in Italian versions of most films.
-
21
At the 1950 Miss Italia competition, she earned second place and was awarded Miss Eleganza.
-
22
She served an 18-day prison sentence in Italy for tax evasion.
-
23
Her Best Actress Academy Award was the first Oscar ever given for a foreign-language performance.
-
24
At age 72, she appeared in the 2007 Pirelli Calendar, becoming the oldest model in its history.
-
25
She was cited as an early role model for Drew Barrymore, who spent summers at Loren’s ranch with Loren’s sons.
-
26
Carlo Ponti obtained a Mexican divorce from his first wife and married Sophia by proxy while she filmed Houseboat 1958 and dated Cary Grant.
-
27
In 2004, she won a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf/Beintus along with Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev.
-
28
With El Cid 1961, she became only the second actress to earn one million dollars for a single film role, after Elizabeth Taylor.
-
29
Husband Carlo Ponti was two years older than Sophia’s mother.
-
30
She is the mother-in-law of Sasha Alexander and Andrea Mészáros.
-
31
She was one of eight women carrying the Olympic flag at the 2006 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Turin.
-
32
Because of her love for actor Tyrone Power, she saw Blood and Sand 1941 twenty times.
-
33
She derives great pleasure from rolling her bare feet over a wooden rolling pin while watching television and likes walking in the rain.
-
34
She turned down the title role in Barbarella 1968.
-
35
Her adopted surname is a slight variation of Toren after Swedish actress Märta Torén.
-
36
She was awarded Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honour of France on July 16, 1991 and Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic on June 26, 1996.
-
37
She was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.
-
38
She has four grandchildren: Lucia, Leonardo, Vittorio, and Beatrice.
-
39
She played the mother of her real-life niece Alessandra Mussolini in A Special Day 1977.
-
40
She filed a lawsuit against 76 websites for using fraudulent photographs on adult sites.
-
41
She was considered for the role of Lara Antipova in Doctor Zhivago 1965 but it went to Julie Christie.
-
42
While filming Boy on a Dolphin 1957, she walked in a trench to make co-star Alan Ladd appear taller.
-
43
She is the natural daughter of Romilda Villani by Riccardo Scicolone, son of Marchese Scicolone from a noble family in Agrigento.
-
44
She turned down an offer to appear in 4 for Texas 1963 and a $1-million fee for four weeks’ work.
-
45
Yvonne De Carlo inspired her to become an actress.
-
46
A fan of soccer club S.S.C. Napoli, she joked she would do a striptease if they achieved promotion to Serie A; they did, and she said it was just a joke.
-
47
She and Marcello Mastroianni appeared in 11 movies together.
-
48
She is the mother of Carlo Ponti Jr. and Edoardo Ponti; father is Carlo Ponti.
-
49
She is one of six performers with multiple Oscar nominations for foreign-language films, with nominations for Two Women in 1960 and Marriage Italian Style in 1964.
-
50
She was mentioned in a song entitled Oh Boy by Allan Sherman.
