Carlo Ponti (1912 - 2007)

Carlo Ponti
Born Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti
11 December 1912
Magenta, Lombardy, Italy
Died 10 January 2007 (aged 94)
Geneva, Switzerland
Spouse(s)
Giuliana Fiastri
​
(m. 1946; div. 1957)
Sophia Loren
​
(m. 1957; annulled 1962)
​
(m. 1966)
Children 4, including Carlo Ponti Jr. and Edoardo Ponti
Awards Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (La Strada, 1956)
Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti Sr. (11 December 1912 – 10 January 2007) was an Italian film producer with more than 140 productions to his credit. He was the husband of international film star Sophia Loren.

Career
Ponti was born in Magenta, Lombardy, where his grandfather had been mayor of the city. Ponti studied law at the University of Milan. He joined his father's law firm in Milan and became involved in the film business through negotiating contracts. Ponti attempted to establish a film industry in Milan in 1940 and produced Mario Soldati's Piccolo Mondo Antico there, starring Alida Valli, in her first notable role. The film dealt with the Italian struggle against the Austrians for the inclusion of northeastern Italy into the Kingdom of Italy during the Risorgimento. The film was successful, because it was easy to see "the Austrians as Germans" during World War II. As a result, he was briefly jailed for undermining relations with Nazi Germany.

Ponti accepted an offer from Riccardo Gualino's Lux Film in Rome in 1941, where he produced a series of commercially successful films featuring the comedian Totò. In 1954 he had his greatest artistic success with the production of Federico Fellini's La strada. However, Fellini denied Ponti's role in its success and said that "La Strada was made in spite of Ponti and De Laurentiis".[4] Ponti produced Boccaccio '70 in 1962, Marriage Italian Style in 1964, and Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow in 1965. He produced his most popular and financially successful film, Doctor Zhivago, in 1965; the movie was directed by David Lean. He subsequently produced three notable films with Michelangelo Antonioni, Blowup in 1966, Zabriskie Point in 1970 and The Passenger in 1974.

Personal life
Marriages
In 1946, he married Giuliana Fiastri with whom he had a daughter, Guendalina, in 1951, and a son, Alex,[6] in 1953.[7] While serving as a judge in a beauty contest in 1951, Ponti met a minor actress named Sofia Lazzaro (real name Sofia Villani Scicolone). He subsequently cast her in films such as Anna (1951). In 1952, his friend Goffredo Lombardo, head of production at Titanus, changed Lazzaro's name to Sophia Loren.

Five years later, Ponti obtained a Mexican divorce from his first wife and married Sophia Loren by proxy. Divorce was still forbidden in Italy, and he was informed that were he to return there, he would be charged with bigamy, and Loren would be charged with "concubinage".

Ponti co-produced several films in Hollywood starring Loren, establishing her fame, although most were box-office failures. In 1960, he and Loren returned to Italy and when summoned to court, denied being married. In 1962, they had the marriage annulled, after which Ponti arranged with his first wife, Giuliana, that the three of them move to France (which at that time allowed divorce) and become French citizens. In 1965, Giuliana Ponti divorced her husband, allowing Ponti to marry Loren in 1966 in a civil wedding in Sèvres.
They later became French citizens after their application was approved by then-French President Georges Pompidou.

Ponti and Loren had two children:
Carlo Ponti Jr. (born 29 December 1968)
Edoardo Ponti (born 6 January 1973)
Their daughters-in-law are Sasha Alexander and Andrea Meszaros. They have four grandchildren.

Sophia Loren remained married to Ponti until his death on 10 January 2007 of pulmonary complications.

Kidnapping attempts
Two unsuccessful attempts were made to kidnap Ponti in 1975, including one involving an attack on his car with gunfire.[1]

Death
Ponti died in Geneva, Switzerland, from pulmonary complications on 10 January 2007.[2][18] He was survived by his daughter Guendalina (b. 1951), and his son Alessandro (b. 1953) from his first marriage; and by his second wife, Sophia Loren and their sons Carlo (b. 1968) and Edoardo Ponti (b. 1973).

His body rests in the family tomb in Magenta, Lombardy.