Sophia Loren, considered
Italy's most famous living actress, marks her 80th birthday
Saturday with a tell-all memoir that promises a peek into the
lives of Hollywood's most storied film legends as well as the
diva herself.
Loren, a self-described skinny street urchin from Naples
who never knew her father, grew to star in some 80 films and
became the first person to win an Academy Award in a
foreign-language film in 1961 as Best Actress in the Italian
drama Two Women.
In a varied career, she starred alongside such leading men
as Marcello Mastroianni, Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra, Marlon
Brando and actor and director Vittorio De Sica - many of whom,
she reveals, ardently pursued her.
Her memoir 'Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow - A Life'
borrows its title from her 1963 smash comedy with Mastroianni,
the fellow Italian with whom she shared the screen in 12
different films over a 20-year span.
The film, directed by De Sica, won an Oscar for Best
Foreign Language Film at the 37th Academy Awards in 1965.
"Of all my films with Marcello and Vittorio, I remember the
smallest detail, everything...when filming certain scenes you
already know that you are never going to forget them," she said
earlier this year.
She also won a Best Actress Oscar for the 1964 Mastoianni
co-starred film Marriage Italian Style.
Her memoir, including a love letter from Cary Grant as well
as telegrams from Richard Burton, has been released in Italy and
is due to be published in December in the United States.
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