At age 87, Old Hollywood actress Sophia Loren remains one of the last living figures of
the era.
However, the fact that Sophia is still alive and working well into her twilight years is
far from the only thing that has gone to set the iconic actress apart from her peers.
The actress has always had a good deal of idiosyncratic attributes, including her memorably
hairy armpits.
Join Facts Verse as we finally understand why Sophia Loren didn’t shave her armpits.
Since the early days of her acting career, Sophia Loren has remained one of the most
renowned Italian starlets on the international acting scene.
The actress rose to fame during the days of Old Hollywood after breaking out on the Italian
film scene and has had a long and storied career since.
With a career that has spanned over six decades in the industry, there are few players with
as much clout as Sophia.
There have always been many things that have set Sophia Loren apart from her peers.
For one thing, Sophia has always maintained a fairly prominent height of 5 foot 9 inches,
making her quite literally loom over many of her more average-sized female contemporaries.
For another thing, Sophia has always capitalized on her proud Italian heritage, feeling an
immense love for the country from which she comes.
Perhaps the most iconic thing that has set Sophia apart from many of her Old Hollywood
peers is the fact that she has never been too keen on shaving her armpits.
Sophia has been filmed and pictured countless times with her natural armpit hair, and her
confidence has always kept the audience from having any issue with it!
While other starlets of her time would’ve likely rather died than be caught with their
armpits unshaved, Sophia found no need for modern convenience.
Sophia’s hairy armpits were often chalked up to differing cultural norms, but it was
just as likely that she simply relished being a free spirit.
Despite the fact that many feared Sophia’s hairy armpits might hurt her fame when it
came to the American audience, the actress’s natural beauty overshadowed any hesitancy
that audiences had to accept her armpit hair.
Sophia made armpit hair sexy and stood as a pioneering example in a time when most women
were afraid to show any amount of skin at all, let alone skin with unshaved hair on
it.
If Sophia’s armpit hair has had any impact on her fame at all, it seems to have been
a fairly positive one.
Sophia’s iconic armpit hair helped her stand out amongst the competition at a time when
sex symbols were becoming increasingly phony.
Sophia’s Italian charm proved to be the antidote that Hollywood needed, and Sophia
rose to fame on her own terms as a decidedly unique Old Hollywood actress.
Sophia’s hairy armpits have always stood as an example of how the classic Old Hollywood
actress has refused to let anyone push her around.
Sophia has always maintained fame on her own terms, and she has never been open to the
idea of anyone besides her crafting her public image.
She has been proven right time and time again in her instincts, as she has maintained health
and success well into her old age.
Today, at the age of 87, Sophia is still working, and still looks incredible!
Despite the fact that Sophia is seemingly doing better than ever in her old age, it
was a long and tough journey to the top for the Old Hollywood starlet.
Though Sophia has only taken on a few acting roles in the past few decades, they have been
enough to keep fans satisfied and assured that the actress is still flourishing.
In 2020, Sophia took one of her biggest and most challenging roles in years with her turn
in the dramatic Italian film The Life Ahead.
The film was a major critical success, thanks in no small part to Sophia’s incredible
performance.
According to critics, the film proved that Sophia still had the same star power in her
80s as she did during her physical prime.
More recently, Sophia has appeared as herself in the documentary short film What Would Sophia
Loren Do?, which has since been made available for streaming on Netflix.
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Sophia Loren was born on September 20, 1934, in Rome, Italy.
Sophia’s childhood was regrettably tragic, as she had been born to a mother and father
that didn’t quite get along.
Sophia’s father was a man of noble lineage, and he flat-out refused to marry her mother.
Despite the fact that Sophia’s father refused to marry her mother, Sophia wasn’t the only
child that the two had together.
Four years after Sophia was born, the couple gave birth to another daughter.
Sophia’s father refused to marry her mother due to the fact that she was considered to
be not a worthy wife for the prestigious man of noble lineage.
Because of this, Sophia’s father was absent throughout most of her and her sister’s
life, treating their mother as a concubine.
Many years later, Sophia would be labeled a concubine herself by her home country in
a notorious incident involving her first husband.
Sophia’s mother was a woman by the name of Romilda Villani, and she had made a bid
for stardom as a young woman that didn’t turn out quite as good as her daughter’s.
In 1932, Romilda had a contest seeking a lookalike for Greta Garbo.
Although winning the contest entitled Romilda to a trip to Hollywood and some acting opportunities,
her mother refused to allow the young woman to go.
Perhaps if Romilda had been allowed to venture out to Hollywood, she would’ve been a woman
worthy enough of marriage for the man that was to become Sophia’s father.
However, she also likely would’ve never met him.
Sophia’s father was named Riccardo Scicolone, and his noble lineage means that Sophia is
technically the Marquess of Licata Scicolone Murillo, though she’s not too proud of it.
Although their father popped up every once in a while to make love to their mother, he
was largely an absent figure from the lives of Sophia and her sister.
They grew up being raised predominantly by their mother and grandmother in a tiny village
by the name of Pozzuoli, on the outskirts of the much larger and more notable location
of Naples.
When Sophia and her sister were growing up in their grandmother’s home, her grandmother
was supporting the family by running a successful pub out of their living room.
During Sophia’s teenage years, she could be found waiting on tables and washing dishes
for the pub’s clients, making her a hard-working contributor to her family’s business.
The tiny village of Pozzuoli came under fire from the Allies during World War II, and young
Sophia was hit in the face with a piece of shrapnel during an air raid.
This created a scar on the young woman’s chin that is still there to this day.
During the actress’s teenage years, she was often made fun of by her male peers for
being too skinny and tall.
However, the young woman grew into these attributes as she entered into her adult years, and they
paid off for her big time.
During her later teenage years, Sophia grew into her looks and started performing in beauty
pageants to a good deal of acclaim.
In 1950, Sophia entered into the Miss Italia pageant and was given the title of “Miss
Elegance” by the judges.
Sadly, the title of “Miss Italia” ended up going to another contestant, but Sophia
came incredibly close.
Another beauty contest that Sophia came close to being the first prize winner of was called
Queen of the Sea.
Though Sophia was only a runner-up in the contest, she did win several prizes.
One of the prizes that young Sophia won as a result of this contest was a ticket to Rome.
It was during Sophia’s trip to Rome that she was given the opportunity to become a
model.
While one might assume that Sophia was given a job modeling clothes or cosmetics, the modeling
job that she was given was actually far more interesting.
Back in the day, Italy had something known as fumetti, which were comic strips that were
made with real photos.
These ran in Italian newspapers and provided an interesting comic alternative for Italian
adults.
Sophia’s time as a model for fumettis inspired the young woman to start taking some acting
classes, and she was enrolled by the age of 17.
Within just a year of starting her acting classes, Sophia had already received her first
small role in a film.
While many of Sophia’s Old Hollywood peers rose to prominence as much for their theatrical
work as their work on film, Sophia always had severe stage fright that prevented her
from performing dramatically on the stage.
After performing many small parts in a variety of films, Sophia’s first lead role came
in the 1953 feature Aida.
The actress’s success on the Italian film scene eventually caught the attention of producers
in Hollywood, and Sophia was brought overseas and given a contract with Paramount Pictures.
When Sophia first started out in Hollywood, she could barely speak English and had to
read all of her lines phonetically off of cue cards, pronouncing the words just based
on how they looked with no understanding of what they actually meant.
Eventually, Sophia overcame this struggle and managed to become one of Old Hollywood’s
biggest and brightest stars!
Despite the fact that Sophia Loren could barely speak English and refused to shave her armpits
after showing up in Hollywood, American audiences eventually fell in love with the unique Italian
starlet.
Comment down below to share if you have any issues with Sophia’s hairy armpits, or if
you are one of many fans that hopes that the 87-year-old star isn’t planning on calling
it quits anytime soon!
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