Biography for
Carlo Ponti More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

11 December 1912, Magenta, Lombardy, Italy

Date of Death

10 January 2007, Geneva, Switzerland (pulmonary complications)

Birth Name

Carlo Fortunaro Pietro Ponti

Spouse

Sophia Loren	(9 April 1966 - 10 January 2007) (his death) 2 children
Sophia Loren	(17 September 1957 - 1962) (annulled)
Giuliana Fiastri	(1946 - September 1957) (divorced) 2 children

Trivia

Father of Edoardo Ponti

Father (by 2nd wife Sophia Loren) of Carlo Ponti Jr.. Father (by 1st wife) of producer Alex Ponti and of lawyer Guendalina Ponti.

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959

Earned a law degree from the University of Milan. Practiced law in Milan in the late 1930s.

Studied law at the University of Milan.

Got to know his future wife Sofia Villone Scicolone at the "Miss Rome" competition and gave her the stage name Sophia Loren (1952).

After he had divorced from Giuliana Fiastri in Mexico, he married Sophia Loren in 1957. As the divorce was not legalized in Italy, he was accused of bigamy and his marriage to Loren was annulled in 1962. Thus, the couple and Ponti's first wife acquired French citizenship, so that he and Loren could marry again in 1966.

Founded the production company "Ponti-De Laurentiis" together with Dino De Laurentiis, which produced Toto in Color (1953), the first Italian movie in color.

The controversy surrounding his first marriage to Sophia Loren, was that he was still legally married to his first wife Giuliana Fiastri at that time in the eyes of Cathoilc Italy, even though they had already divorced by 1957. In order to marry Loren he obtained a divorce in Mexico where they also got married by proxy, but this was not recognized back in Italy where Ponti was condemned and told he would be charged with bigamy should he return. Thus Ponti and Loren lived in exile in the States for a while until matters could be resolved. In the end the solution was for all three: Ponti, Loren and his ex-wife Fiastri to adopt French citizenship so that he and Fiastri could be legally divorced, and he and Loren could be legally married.

Is portrayed by Joseph Long in The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (2004).

Was considered for the role of Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972) despite the fact that he was not an actor.