Romilda Villani: What happened to Sophia Loren’s mother?

Romilda Villani was an actress and the mother of iconic actress Sophia Loren. Romilda Villani’s daughter is one of the most celebrated actresses of her time. As of 2023, she is one of the last surviving major stars from the Golden Age era. She rose above her poverty-stricken origins in postwar Naples to become universally recognized as one of Italy’s most beautiful women and its most famous movie star. Through all these her mother has been her pillar. Who is Sophia Loren’s mother?

Romilda Villani: Bio Summary

Who was Sophia Loren’s mother, Romilda?

Romilda Villani was born on 1910 in Pozzuoli, Campania, Italy. She was the daughter of  Domenico Villani and Luisa Villani. Romilda is a mother of two, Aside from Loren, she also has another daughter whose name is Anna Maria Villani Scicolone. She had her children with her partner Riccardo Scicolone.

According to Loren, her father Riccardo was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother, Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and her younger sister Maria Scicolone). This left her without financial support to raise the two daughters. According to the actress, her father did not want to formally recognize Maria as his daughter.

Per Forioscribe when the actress accumulated enough wealth from being a movie star, she took the bold step of approaching her biological father, Riccardo Scicolone, and decided to pay him a large sum of money to formally recognize her younger sister Maria, also his daughter. Sophia Loren insisted he did this because she couldn’t stand her younger sister being bullied by schoolmates as being born out of wedlock.

Romilda Villani and her daughters lived with her mother in Pozzuoli, near Naples. That was when the second world war broke out. During those times the harbour and munitions plant in Pozzuoli was a frequent bombing target of the Allies. The actress remembered one time when she was running to the shelter, she was struck by shrapnel and wounded in the chin.

Later, the family moved from Pozzuoli to Naples, where they lived with some distant relatives and loved back after the war died down. Romilda’s mother Luisa opened a pub in their living room, selling homemade cherry liquor. Romilda played the piano, Maria sang, and Loren waited on tables and washed dishes.

Romilda Villani is an actress

Loren’s acting career was launched in a series of low-budget comedies before she finally had her breakthrough and attracted critical and popular attention with Aida (1953), in which she lip-synched the singing of Renata Tebaldi in the title role. Her performance as Cesira in the film Two Women (1961) won her the Academy Award for Best Actress, making her the first actor to win an Oscar for a non-English-language performance.

Sophia Loren’s mother has also left her name in the film industry as an actress. Romild Villani who was known for most of her life as a piano teacher and aspiring actress made her debut in 1951 in the film Quo Vadis (1951) per IMDb. She was credited as a slave girl in the film which was her only credit. Loren was also in the film as one of many slave girls, which was also her first role.

ALSO, READ; Riccardo Scicolone: How did Sophia Loren’s father die?

What happened to Sophia Loren’s mother?

Romilda Villani passed away on May 9, 1991, in Rome, Italy after a long illness. She was 81 years old at the time of her passing. Loren revealed she met with her father three times, at age five, age seventeen, and in 1976 at his deathbed, stating that she forgave him but had never forgotten his abandonment and poor treatment of her mother. Riccardo Scicolone died in 1976.