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Born Sofia Scicolone in Rome 1934, an illegitimate child in a Naples slum. After appearing in Quo Vadis as an extra, she was encouraged by her mother to enter beauty contests, especially when she shed her childhood nickname of The Stick ("Stechetto") to acquire a voluptuous figure which would later thrill American film audiences. She was noticed in a contest by producer Carlo Ponti, who groomed her for stardom and later married her. Launched in Hollywood in 1958, Loren was perennially miscast in America and returned to Italy, but won an Oscar for the harrowing Two Women.
