Carlo Ponti

Carlo Ponti was born 11 December 1912 and spent the 1950s and 1960s doing what Dino De Laurentiis also did: pulling Italian film back from the war's wreckage and making it matter again. He worked with Fellini, Antonioni, De Sica, Varda, David Lean — more than 140 films carried his name. La Strada won him the Academy Award for Best Foreign-Language Film in 1954; Doctor Zhivago earned a Best Picture nomination in 1965. He also launched the career of Sophia Loren, who became his wife and the era's most recognized star. Italy named him Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit in 1996. He died 10 J…