ITALY:Carlo Ponti, one of Italy's best-known film producers and the husband of actress Sophia Loren, has died at the age of 94, his family said yesterday.
In his 50-year career, Ponti produced more than 150 films, including Fellini's La Strada in 1954 and David Lean's Dr Zhivago in 1965.
But he was equally famous for discovering a teenage Loren and turning her into one of the world's most glamorous stars.
Italy's first couple of the movie industry met in 1952 when Ponti, already an established producer and a married man, cast his vote for a poor girl from a Naples slum in a beauty contest.
Loren made her name soon afterwards when Ponti, 20 years her senior, gave her a part in a semi-documentary. He then stood back as she became Italy's sex symbol, standing in comparison with Brigitte Bardot and Marilyn Monroe.
In 1957, after unsuccessfully seeking a Vatican annulment of his first marriage - Italy then had no divorce laws - Ponti married Loren in Mexico.
The furore over the affair forced the couple to leave Italy, where he was charged with bigamy and was not acquitted until 1968.
They initially moved to Hollywood and later had two sons. Increasingly bitter towards his homeland, Ponti became a French citizen in 1965.
From 1950 to 1955, he worked with producer Dino de Laurentiis, but the partnership broke up over budget squabbles. Among the films he produced were Marriage Italian Style (1964), Blowup (1966) and A Special Day (1977).
In his absence, he was sentenced in 1979 by an Italian court to four years in jail and fined $26 million (€20 million) for illegally exporting money. He was cleared in 1987.
Ponti avoided interviews about his personal problems, but spoke freely about his work. He disdained producers who kept their eyes on the cash register.
"I don't make deals, I make pictures," was one of his frequent sayings.