Italian film producer Carlo Ponti, Sophia Loren's husband, died on Wednesday at the age of 94.

Loren, 72, was at his bedside in a Geneva clinic when he died, according to Italian News Agency ANSA.

In a 50-year career starting just before World War II he produced some 200 films including Federico Fellini's La Strada, David Lean's Doctor Zhivago and Loren's Oscar-winner Two Women, in which she was cast against type as a tragic wartime mother.

Ponti's fame as a producer held up under the unrelenting gossip-mag spotlight on his courtship, coaching and marriage to Loren as Italy's prime movie couple.

He discovered her as a beauty contest winner from a Naples slum in the early '50s and turned her into one of the world's most glamorous actresses.

Ponti set up Hollywood vehicles like The Key with William Holden, Desire Under the Elms with Anthony Perkins, Houseboat with Cary Grant and It Started in Naples with Clark Gable - in which she challenged sex symbols Marilyn Monroe and Brigitte Bardot.

Loren bore Ponti two sons, music conductor Carlo Jr and film director Eduardo.

Ponti's French citizenship led to problems with Italian tax authorities, who secured a four-year jail term and a 26-million-dollar fine in 1979 for taking money out of Italy illegally.

Italy's Supreme Court quashed the verdict in 1987 and freed his frozen assets.

(Xinhua News Agency January 11, 2007)