| ROBERT WAGNER decided not to go intohis father's business and chose instead to pursue a career in Hollywood.Actress Janet Leigh. who worked with Wagner in his first starring roleas Prince Valiant (1954), described Wagner as "well mannered,straightforward. humorous and eager." These traits along withhis classic good looks allowed him to sustain a twenty-year career in themovies, after which he successfully moved into television with severalpopular series such as It Takes A Thief (1967-1969) and HartTo Hart (1979- 1984). His courtship and two marriages to Natalie Woodmade many tabloid headlines, as did her tragic drowning while the two wereon a boating excursion in 1981. | SOPHIA LOREN floats alluringly in the buff in theobscure Italian film Duo Notte con Cleopatra (Two Nights withCleopatra,1953). a film in which she played dual roles. Producer WalterWanger had considered her for the lead in his Hollywood version of Cleopatra,but she lost out to Liz Taylor. Taylor's ex- Richard Burton said of theNeapolitan beauty, "Sophia is as beautif'ul as an erotic dream.''Clark Gable concurred, noting, "All that meat on the bone and everyounce of it choice enough to eat!" Ironically, Loren was scrawny whenshe grew up in war-torn Naples, so skinny and shapeless that other kidscalled her stuzzicadente (toothpick). What's more, as she got older,she was plagued with a nose too long, a mouth too wide, breasts too bigand, at five feet eight inches, a body too tall - but somehow the combinationof distractions worked. At sixteen she was discovered by Carlo Ponti, thethirty-seven-year-old producer who would take charge of her career andher life. Longtime lovers, the two were officially married in France in1966 after he obtained a legal divorce. He had already turned Loren intoa major star by taking her to Hollywood in 1958 with much hoopla. Her BestActress Oscar for the Italian film, La Ciociare (Two Women, 1961),was the first to a foreign actress in a foreign-language film. In 1991she received a special Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. |
