Noted film producer Ponti dies at 94

ROME – Carlo Ponti, the film producer who discovered Sophia Loren, launched the movie icon’s career and whose more than half-century romance with her endured threats of bigamy charges and excommunication, has died. He was 94.

Ponti died late Tuesday at a Geneva hospital, his family and Loren’s agents said Wednesday. He had been hospitalized about 10 days earlier because of pulmonary complications.

Ponti produced more than 100 films, including “Doctor Zhivago,” “The Firemen’s Ball,” and “The Great Day,” which were nominated for Oscars. Other major films included “Blow-Up,” “The Cassandra Crossing,” “Zabriskie Point” and “The Squeeze.”

In 1956, the Federico Fellini film “La Strada,” which he co-produced, won the Oscar for best foreign film, as did “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow” in 1964.

But it was his affair with Loren that captivated the public.

Loren was only 15 – and 25 years younger than Ponti – when the couple met in 1950. Ponti was married to his first wife, Giuliana, at the time.

They tried to keep their relationship a secret despite huge media interest, while Ponti’s lawyers went to Mexico to obtain a divorce from his first wife. Divorce was not yet legal in Italy.

Ponti and Loren were married by proxy in Mexico in 1957. But they were unable to beat stringent Italian laws. Ponti was charged with bigamy and Loren with being a concubine.