- published: 27 Jan 2016
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Carlo Ponti (11 December 1912 – 10 January 2007) was an Italian film producer with over 140 production credits, and the husband of Italian movie star Sophia Loren.
Ponti was born in Magenta, Lombardy and 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 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". He produced Visconti's 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, David Lean's Doctor Zhivago in 1965. He subsequently produced three notable films with Michelangelo Antonioni, Blowup in 1966, Zabriskie Point in 1970 and The Passenger in 1974.
Actors: Vittorio Sindoni (director), Nicola Piovani (composer), Sophia Loren (actress), Claudio Saraceni (producer), Nicola Di Pinto (actor), Enzo De Caro (actor), Piero De Bernardi (writer), Carla Cassola (actress), Bruno Bilotta (actor), Beatrice Palme (actress), Cinzia Monreale (actress), Bruce McGuire (actor), Gea Martire (actress), Franco Barbero (actor), Albano Bufalini (actor),
Genres: Biography,Actors: Miriam Margolyes (actress), Alison Steadman (actress), Heidi Klum (actress), Geoffrey Rush (actor), Emilia Fox (actress), Peter Vaughan (actor), Steve Pemberton (actor), Ray Donn (actor), John Lithgow (actor), Nigel Havers (actor), Stephen Fry (actor), Stanley Tucci (actor), Mackenzie Crook (actor), Emily Watson (actress), Charlize Theron (actress),
Plot: The professional and personal life of actor and comedian 'Peter Sellers (I)' (qv) was a turbulent one. His early movie fame was based primarily on his comic characterizations, often of bumbling and foreign-accented persons, characters which he embodied. As his movie fame rose, he began to lose his own personal identity to his movie characters, leading to self-doubt of himself as a person and a constant need for reassurance and acceptance of his work. This self-doubt manifested itself in fits of anger and what was deemed as arrogance by many. In turn, his personal relationships began to deteriorate as his characterizations were continually used to mask his problems. His first wife, Anne Howe, left/divorced him and his relationships with his parents and children became increasingly distant. His relationship with his second wife, Swedish actress 'Britt Ekland' (qv), was based on this mask. In his later life, he tried to rediscover himself and his career with what would become his penultimate film role, that of Chance in _Being There (1979)_ (qv).
Keywords: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, acting, actor, actress, adultery, airplane-trip, animated-credits, animated-sequenceActors: Riccardo Cucciolla (actor), Sophia Loren (actress), Sophia Loren (actress), Mel Stuart (director), Armand Assante (actor), Edmund Purdom (actor), Mickey Knox (actor), Rip Torn (actor), Cyrus Elias (actor), Fred Karlin (composer), Roger Gimbel (producer), John Gavin (actor), Peter Katz (producer), Francesca De Sapio (actress), Roger Browne (actor),
Genres: Biography, Drama,