Sophia Loren honored in Hollywood
(CBS/Reuters) Even 50 years after receiving her first Oscar, Sophia Loren still wows Hollywood with her elegance and style.
Loren, the first person to win an acting Oscar for a foreign-language role, was showered with accolades at a tribute ceremony in Hollywood on Wednesday.
The actress told the audience that she never dreamed an Italian in an Italian-language film would earn the movie industry's highest honor, which would explain why she didn't even attend the 1961 Academy Awards at which she won Best Actress for her role in "Two Women."
Loren, now 76, is regarded as the most famous living Italian actress with more than 80 movies in her career. She also received a lifetime achievement Oscar in 1991 and was declared "one of the world cinema's greatest treasures."
"The Academy Award changed my life completely," she said at the tribute organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. "It helped me to believe in myself and encouraged me to push my own artistic boundaries."
"There are no words to describe my emotions right now. It is hard to imagine that 50 years have passed since I welcomed my Oscar to my home," she added.
During the tribute, audience members watched clips of Loren's most famous roles, including "Marriage Italian Style," "A Special Day," "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" and Hollywood films "El Cid" and "Man of La Mancha."
Since most of her co-stars and directors have already died - Marcello Mastroianni, Gregory Peck, Frank Sinatra, Cary Grant, and Marlon Brando - the speeches were left to a younger generation.
Rob Marshall, who directed Loren in her most recent film "Nine" (2009), said working with her was "the most magic I will ever have."
Tom Hanks called her "timeless, beautiful and authentically real."
Italian actor and director Roberto Benigni, himself an Oscar winner for the 1997 movie "Life is Beautiful," sang to Loren in a video message, and her son Edoardo Ponti fought back tears as he told her: "We are here because we love you and you deserve every single thing."