Sophia Loren at 75

Starring Role
Once in the big city, Loren modeled for lowbrow magazines until, one evening at a nightclub, she was introduced to Carlo Ponti, an Italian movie producer. Ponti, who would later become Loren's husband, helped her lose her Neapolitan accent, enroll in acting lessons and obtain small roles. Before long, she was getting job offers, and in 1953 she was cast in the leading role of Aida, above, in which she plays the fictional Ethiopian princess captured and put into slavery.

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