After several films in Hollywood, Sophia returned to Italy in 1960 to star in La ciociara, for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress.

She had a much publicized fling with her co-star Cary Grant, who was 53 at the time, while she was 22. By her late teens, Sophia was playing lead roles in many Italian films, and in 1957 began a successful career in the United States. She was noticed at age 14 during a beauty contest by film producer Carlo Ponti who launched her career and, 22 years her senior, also became her husband in 1966, after their first marriage was annulled to spare Ponti from bigamy charges. She grew up in Pozzuoli, near Naples, without any support from her father who refused to marry Sofia’s mother. Sophia Loren was born Sofia Scicolone in 1934 in Rome. She portrayed famous subjects such as Paul Newman, Audrey Hepburn and Salvador Dalì and published a collection of her work in 1973, “Italia Mia.” In an interview to the magazine Parade in 2000, she declared she “became an actress by mistake.” Sophia Loren In the 1970s, Lollobrigida took a break from acting to concentrate on another career: photography. She was nominated three times for the Golden Globe and six times for the David Di Donatello Award, resulting in as many wins. Her film, Come September (1961) starring Rock Hudson, won the Golden Globe as the World's Film Favorite. After her movie Beautiful but Dangerous (1955), she was named the “most beautiful woman in the world” and was considered the prototype of Italian beauty. Her appearance in Italian and French films eventually brought her to the attention of Hollywood and her first American movie was John Huston’s Beat the Devil (1953) with Humphrey Bogart. After appearing in a few films in Italy, film tycoon Howard Hughes invited her to Hollywood however, she preferred to work in Europe and returned to Italy. When she was 20, she entered the beauty competition Miss Italia, but came in only third.

One of the most popular actresses and iconic sex symbols of the 1950s and 1960s, Gina Lollobrigida was born in 1927 in the mountain village of Subiaco, where she grew up. Silvia Donati struggled to pick only ten, but we believe all the Italian Divas mentioned below fully deserve to be part of the list as they have represented Italian talent around the world over the past decades.

Italian cinema has produced a number of amazing actresses known both for their beauty and acting talent.

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