Riccardo Scicolone: How did Sophia Loren’s father die?

Riccardo Scicolone is the father of iconic Hollywood actress Sophia Loren. Riccardo Scicolone’s daughter is an Italian actress who has been named by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest stars of Classical Hollywood cinema. And as of 2023, she is one of the last surviving major stars from the era. She is the recipient of numerous accolades including  Golden Globes, BAFTA Award, Laurel Award, Grammy Award, and the Volpi Cup for Best Actress.

Riccardo Scicolone: Bio Summary

Who is Sophia Loren’s father?

Riccardo Scicolone was born in 1907 in  Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was the son of Salvatore Louis Scicolone and Sofia Maria Aquilino, and the father of the popular Hollywood actress Sophia Loren. Aside from Loren, Riccardo also had 3 other children- Anna Maria Villani Scicolone, Giuseppe Scicolone, and Giuliano Scicolone.

Riccardo Scicolone was a construction engineer

Loren’s performance as Cesira in the film Two Women (1961) directed by Vittorio De Sica won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first actor to win an Oscar for a non-English-language performance. While she made a name for herself and her family as an actress, his father has never performed in front of the camera. Riccardo was a construction engineer who worked temporarily for the national railway Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane. Though a failed engineer but is of a noble descent. His daughter Sophia Loren wrote in her autobiography that she is entitled to call herself the Marquess of Licata Scicolone Murillo.

Sophia Loren’s parents were not married

Riccardo Scicolone and his long-term partner Romilda Villani had 2 children together, but he refused to marry her. Leaving Sophia Loren’s mother who was a piano teacher and aspiring actress without financial support. The Hollywood actress first met with her father three times, at age five, age seventeen, and in 1976 on his deathbed, citing that she forgave him, but never forgot the abandonment and treatment of her mother.

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Talking about her father- she said– “I never had a relationship with my father,” says Loren. “I wish he would have been a different person, a different father and different companion for my mother but he was who he was and you don’t get to choose your parents. I was lucky though to have a great mother who loved both me and my sister with all her heart.“

Loren’s parents had another child together, her sister Maria, in 1938. She has two younger paternal half-brothers, Giuliano and Giuseppe from the woman Riccardo was married to. Riccardo Scicolone did not want to formally recognize Maria as his daughter. Loren, her mother, and younger sister Maria lived with her grandmother in Pozzuoli, near Naples.

Her mother’s unmarried status lead to a life of poverty. Sofia was so undernourished as a child she was called Sofia Stuzzicadente or “Sofia the toothpick.” According to her all accounts of her childhood, she was a thin, shy, fearful, and unattractive girl. During the Second World War, as Loren ran to the shelter, she was struck by shrapnel and wounded in the chin.

The family relocated to Naples and was taken in by distant relatives. Loren and her family once again returned to Pozzuoli after the war. Loren’s grandmother, Luisa, set up shop in their living room, selling homemade cherry liquor. The actress waited tables and washed dishes while her mother Romilda Villani played the piano and Maria sang. The location was popular among the American soldiers stationed nearby. In 1950, aged 15, she entered the Miss Italia 1950 beauty pageant and was named Miss Elegance.

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What happened to Sophia Loren’s father?

According to forioscribe, When Sophia accumulated wealth being a movie star, she approached her biological father, Riccardo Scicolone, and paid him a large sum of money to formally recognize Maria, also his daughter. Sophia insisted he does this because she couldn’t stand her sister being taunted by schoolmates as being born out of wedlock.

Sophia Loren’s father Riccardo Scicolone passed away in 1976 at about age 69 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. The cause of his death has not been revealed by the actress. As of 2023, Sophia Loren is 89 years old.