Ponti died Tuesday night at a
He produced more
than 100 films, including ''Doctor Zhivago,'' ''The
Firemen's Ball,'' and ''The Great Day,'' which were nominated for Oscars. Other
major films included ''Blow-Up,'' ''The Cassandra Crossing,'' ''Zabriskie Point'' and ''The Squeeze.''
In 1956, ''La Strada,'' which he co-produced, won the Academy Award for
best foreign film, as did ''Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow'' in 1964.
But it was his
affair with the young ingenue Loren that captivated
the public, rather than his work with top filmmakers such as Dino De Laurentiis, Frederico Fellini,
Jean-Luc Godard, Peter Ustinov, and David Lean.
''I have done
everything for love of Sophia,'' he said in a newspaper interview shortly
before his 90th birthday in 2002. ''I have always believed in her.''
Born near
He was married to
his first wife, Giuliana, when he met Loren -- then Sofia Lazzaro
-- about 1950. At the time she was only 15 -- a quarter-century younger than Ponti.
They tried to
keep their relationship a secret despite huge media interest, while Ponti's lawyers went to
Ponti and Loren were married by
proxy in
But they were
unable to beat stringent Italian divorce laws and the wrath of the Roman
Catholic church. Ponti was
charged with bigamy.
''I was being
threatened with excommunication, with the everlasting fire, and for what
reason? I had fallen in love with a man whose own marriage had ended long
before,'' Loren has said.
''I wanted to be
his wife and have his children. We had done the best the law would allow to
make it official, but they were calling us public sinners,'' she said. ''We
should have been taking a honeymoon, but all I remember is weeping for hours.''
The couple first
lived in exile and then, after the annulment of their Mexican marriage, in
secret in
During this
period, Ponti produced the film ''La Ciociara'' -- known in English as ''Two Women'' -- for
which Loren won a best actress Oscar in 1962, and contributed significantly to
the development of French New Wave cinema in his collaboration with Godard.
Ponti and Loren finally beat
Italian law by becoming French citizens -- the approval was signed personally
by French President Georges Pompidou -- and they married for a second time in
Despite many
predictions that the marriage would founder over Ponti's
affairs and the many dashing leading men who reportedly fell in love with
Loren, the couple stayed together.
Ponti had several other brushes
with the law.
He was briefly
imprisoned in by the Fascist government in
Though Loren was
better-known, Ponti amassed a fortune considerably
greater than that of his wife -- and again fell foul of the Italian
authorities.
In 1979, a court
in
Loren, along with
film stars Ava Gardner and Richard Harris were acquitted of conspiracy.
It took Ponti until the late 1980s to settle his legal problems and
finally obtain the return of his art collection, which had been seized by
authorities and given to Italian museums.
He also survived
two kidnapping attempts in 1975.
Ponti discovered many of the
great Italian leading ladies, including Gina Looobridgida,
and had affairs with several. ''I don't like actors. I prefer women,'' he said
at the time.
In recent years,
the couple lived mostly in
Ponti had two sons with Loren
-- Carlo Jr., a celebrated conductor, and Edoardo, a film producer. He also had
two children from his first marriage, Guendolina and
Alexander.
No date was given
for a funeral, but the family said it would be ''strictly private.''
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Sanminiatelli reported from
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/