Sophia Loren made history when she won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1962, becoming the first performer to win for a foreign language role. But the star of the Italian film Two Women wasn’t on hand to collect her trophy at the star-studded ceremony; instead, she stayed home in Rome with her husband, producer Carlo Ponti. 

“When I received an Oscar nomination in late February 1962, I could hardly believe it. ‘The Oscar?’ ‘The Academy Award?’ I kept rereading the names of the other candidates,” Loren, now 90, wrote in her 2014 memoir, Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: My Life. Loren faced stiff competition: Audrey Hepburn (Breakfast at Tiffany’s), Natalie Wood (Splendor in the Grass), Piper Laurie (The Hustler), and Geraldine Page (Summer and Smoke).