When Italian screen icon Sophia Loren was presented with an Honorary Academy Award in 1991 she was described as ‘one of the world cinema’s treasures’. She is the only living person on the American Film Institute’s list of the top 25 Female American Screen Legends.

Beginning her acting career in 1950 at the age of 16, Sophia has become a ‘true goddess of the silver screen.’ She won the Best Actress Oscar in 1961 for her role as Cesira in Vittorio De Sica’s TWO WOMEN, the first in that category for a foreign language performance. She also received the BAFTA and Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for the same role and was nominated for her second Oscar three years later in MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE. Sophia has also won a record six Donatellos from the Academy of Italian Cinema, a Grammy and a handful of Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.

Rarely giving interviews or making public appearances these days, Sophia visited London last month to make her West End debut at the Aldwych Theatre in AN INTIMATE EVENING WITH SOPHIA LOREN with Jonathan Ross for one night only. I left this quick portrait sketch at the stage door and was very pleased when it was returned via International courier last week, signed and dedicated.