Italian film producer Carlo Ponti, husband of Sophia Loren, has died at the age of 94 in a hospital in Switzerland, his family said on Wednesday.

The producer of more than 150 films over a career that spanned 50 years had been in a Geneva hospital for about 10 days with pulmonary problems when he died, the family said in a statement.

Italian movie producer Carlo Ponti and actress Sophia Loren sit together during an August 1957 reception at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
(Associated Press)

Ponti worked with well-known directors including Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard and David Lean and produced such films as Doctor Zhivago, Blow-Up, The Cassandra Crossing, The Verdict and The Squeeze.

His work on Doctor Zhivago garnered Ponti an Oscar nomination in 1965.

Ponti was famous not only for his work, but also for his discovery of Loren, whom he spotted about 1950 when she was a teenager 25 years his junior and he was married to his first wife, Giuliana.

After sending his lawyers to Mexico for a divorce, Ponti married Loren in 1957, a union that was later annulled. Ponti was charged with bigamy, while Loren was accused of being a concubine.

They remarried in 1966.

Ponti is said to have helped turn Loren into a movie star, ensuring she took acting and English lessons and arranging for her to have roles in a number of Italian films.

Alessandra Mussolini, granddaughter of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and a niece of Loren, told Reuters that Ponti died a "peaceful death."

"His wife and children were with him. Sophia has always been with him throughout," Mussolini was quoted as saying by Reuters.

With files from the Associated Press