Sophia Loren (born September 20, 1934) is an Italian film actress. She is widely considered to be the most popular Italian actress of her time and is also famous for being a major international sex symbol.

By the late 1950s, Loren's star had begun to rise in Hollywood, with films such as 1957's Boy on a Dolphin and The Pride and the Passion in which she co-starred with Cary Grant and Frank Sinatra. Grant, reportedly, fell so deeply in love with Loren that he ardently proposed marriage, despite her obvious loyalty to Carlo Ponti and Grant's own union with actress and writer Betsy Drake. Loren refused.