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Massimo Girotti
Actor
Born May 18, 1918Died January 5, 2003 (84 years)
Massimo Girotti (18 May 1918 – 5 January 2003) was an Italian film actor whose career spanned seven decades.
Born in Mogliano, in the province of Macerata, Girotti developed his athletic physique by swimming and playing polo. While studying engineering, he attracted the attention of Mario Soldati, who offered him a small part in the film Dora Nelson (1939), but it was not until later, in Alessandro Blasetti's La corona di ferro (The Iron Crown) (1941) and Roberto Rossellini's Un Pilota ritorna (A Pilot Returns) (1942), that he began to make an impression as a serious actor. In 1943 came a turning point in his career when Luchino Visconti cast him opposite the torrid Clara Calamai in Ossessione (Obsession), an earlier adaptation of the same novel on which Hollywood's The Postman Always Rings Twice is based. The film marked, in a sense, the birth of Italian neo-realism. Some of his notable post-war films include Caccia tragica (The Tragic Hunt) (1946) by Giuseppe De Santis and In nome della legge (1949) (In the Name of the Law) by Pietro Germi.
In 1950, he starred opposite Lucia Bosé in Michelangelo Antonioni's first full-length feature, Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair) (1950). In 1953, he played Spartacus in an Italian epic film known in the US as Sins of Rome and then, returned to work again for Visconti, in Senso (1954), giving perhaps the finest performance of his career. In the years which followed, he appeared in many mainly Italian films for directors such as Lizzani, Bolognini, Vittorio Cottafavi, Lattuada, but it was not until 1968 that he once again played a role worthy of his talents - that of the father in Pasolini's Teorema (Theorem) with Terence Stamp and Silvana Mangano. Two years later, Pasolini cast him as Creonte opposite Maria Callas in his Medea (1969). In 1972, he was in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. That same year he made a rare appearance in a horror film when he agreed to a supporting role in Baron Blood as a favor to its director Mario Bava.
He continued to act in character roles for the next thirty years. Some of the films he appeared in have been notable, including Joseph Losey's Monsieur Klein (1976) with Alain Delon and Jeanne Moreau, Art of Love (1983) by Walerian Borowczyk, the 1985 television miniseries Quo Vadis?, Roberto Benigni's Il mostro (The Monster) (1994).
He died in Rome of a heart attack after having just completed his last film, Ferzan Özpetek's La Finestra di fronte (Facing Windows) (2003).
Source: Article "Massimo Girotti" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Born in Mogliano, in the province of Macerata, Girotti developed his athletic physique by swimming and playing polo. While studying engineering, he attracted the attention of Mario Soldati, who offered him a small part in the film Dora Nelson (1939), but it was not until later, in Alessandro Blasetti's La corona di ferro (The Iron Crown) (1941) and Roberto Rossellini's Un Pilota ritorna (A Pilot Returns) (1942), that he began to make an impression as a serious actor. In 1943 came a turning point in his career when Luchino Visconti cast him opposite the torrid Clara Calamai in Ossessione (Obsession), an earlier adaptation of the same novel on which Hollywood's The Postman Always Rings Twice is based. The film marked, in a sense, the birth of Italian neo-realism. Some of his notable post-war films include Caccia tragica (The Tragic Hunt) (1946) by Giuseppe De Santis and In nome della legge (1949) (In the Name of the Law) by Pietro Germi.
In 1950, he starred opposite Lucia Bosé in Michelangelo Antonioni's first full-length feature, Cronaca di un amore (Story of a Love Affair) (1950). In 1953, he played Spartacus in an Italian epic film known in the US as Sins of Rome and then, returned to work again for Visconti, in Senso (1954), giving perhaps the finest performance of his career. In the years which followed, he appeared in many mainly Italian films for directors such as Lizzani, Bolognini, Vittorio Cottafavi, Lattuada, but it was not until 1968 that he once again played a role worthy of his talents - that of the father in Pasolini's Teorema (Theorem) with Terence Stamp and Silvana Mangano. Two years later, Pasolini cast him as Creonte opposite Maria Callas in his Medea (1969). In 1972, he was in Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris. That same year he made a rare appearance in a horror film when he agreed to a supporting role in Baron Blood as a favor to its director Mario Bava.
He continued to act in character roles for the next thirty years. Some of the films he appeared in have been notable, including Joseph Losey's Monsieur Klein (1976) with Alain Delon and Jeanne Moreau, Art of Love (1983) by Walerian Borowczyk, the 1985 television miniseries Quo Vadis?, Roberto Benigni's Il mostro (The Monster) (1994).
He died in Rome of a heart attack after having just completed his last film, Ferzan Özpetek's La Finestra di fronte (Facing Windows) (2003).
Source: Article "Massimo Girotti" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA.
Known For
Filmography
| 2003 | Facing Windows · as Simone / Davide Veroli |
| 2001 | Roberto Rossellini: Frammenti e battute · as Gino Rossati |
| 1994 | The Monster · as Il Condomino Distinto |
| 1989 | The French Revolution · as Envoyé Du Pape |
| 1989 | Rebus · as Count Valery Du Terrail |
| 1988 | La Bohème · as The Old Pretender / Featuring |
| 1987 | The War of the Oxen (TV Series) · as Someier |
| 1985 | The Berlin Affair · as Werner Von Heiden |
| 1985 | Christopher Columbus (TV Series) · as Duca Medina Coeli |
| 1985 | Quo Vadis? (TV Series) · as Aulus Plautius |
| 1983 | Art of Love · as Ovid |
| 1981 | Passion of Love · as Colonel |
| 1976 | And Agnes Chose to Die · as Palita |
| 1976 | Mr. Klein · as Charles, Florence's Husband |
| 1976 | Origins of the Mafia (TV Series) · as Viceroy Caracciolo |
| 1976 | The Innocent · as Count Stefano Egano |
| 1975 | Mark Shoots First · as Il Questore Spaini |
| 1975 | The Suspicious Death of a Minor · as Gaudenzio Pesce |
| 1975 | Cagliostro · as Giacomo Casanova |
| 1974 | The Kiss of Death · as Eugenio Dazzi |
| 1973 | Stateline Motel · as Fred Norton |
| 1973 | Les voraces · as Olmi |
| 1972 | Last Tango in Paris · as Marcel |
| 1972 | Baron Blood · as Dr. Karl Hummel |
| 1971 | Il segno del comando (TV Series) · as George Powell |
| 1969 | Medea · as Creonte |
| 1969 | The Red Tent · as Giuseppe Romagna Manoja |
| 1969 | My Sister, My Love · as Alex |
| 1969 | Jekyll (IT) (TV Series) · as John Utterson |
| 1968 | Listen, Let's Make Love · as Tassi |
| 1968 | Teorema · as Paolo, The Father |
| 1967 | The Witches · as Sportsman (segment "la Strega Bruciata Viva") |
| 1967 | The fiancés (TV Series) · as Fra Cristoforo |
| 1965 | Marco the Magnificent · as Nicolo, Marco's Father |
| 1963 | Gold for the Caesars · as Pro-Consul Caius Cornelius Maximus) |
| 1963 | The Shortest Day · as Capitano Alla Finestra (uncredited) |
| 1962 | Imperial Venus · as Leclerc |
| 1961 | Duel of the Titans · as Tazio |
| 1960 | The Giants of Thessaly · as Orfeo |
| 1960 | Lettere di una novizia · as Don Paolo Conti |
| 1960 | The Cossacks · as Tsar Alexander Ii |
| 1959 | Le notti dei Teddy Boys · as Constantino's Father |
| 1959 | Wolves of the Deep · as Comandante |
| 1959 | Head of a Tyrant · as Holofernes |
| 1959 | Asphalt · as Éric |
| 1959 | Herod the Great · as Ottaviano |
| 1958 | The Year Long Road · as Chiacchiera (naklapalo) |
| 1957 | Goddess of Love · as Prassitele |
| 1957 | La bestia humana · as Pedro Sandoval |
| 1957 | It Happened in Rome · as Ugo Parenti |
| 1955 | Marguerite de la nuit · as Valentin |
| 1955 | Disperato addio · as Dottor Andrea Pitti |
| 1954 | Senso · as Il Marchese Roberto Ussoni |
| 1954 | La tua donna · as Sandro Ademari |
| 1953 | The Love of a Woman · as André Lorenz |
| 1953 | Vortice · as Dr. Guido Aureli |
| 1953 | Ai margini della metropoli · as Avv. Roberto Martini |
| 1953 | A Husband for Anna · as Andrea Grazzi |
| 1953 | Spartaco · as Spartacus |
| 1952 | Secret of Three Points · as Massimo Dal Colle |
| 1952 | Il tenente Giorgio · as Tenente Giorgio Biserta |
| 1952 | Leathernose · as Doctor Marchal |
| 1952 | Rome 11:00 · as Nando The Unemployed |
| 1951 | Behind Closed Shutters · as Ingegnere Roberto |
| 1950 | Story of a Love Affair · as Guido |
| 1949 | Fabiola · as Sebastian |
| 1949 | In the Name of the Law · as Il Pretore Guido Schiavi |
| 1949 | Altura · as Stanis Archena |
| 1948 | Anni difficili · as Giovanni Piscitello |
| 1948 | Woman Trouble · as Paolo Bertoni |
| 1948 | Lost Youth · as Marcello Mariani |
| 1947 | Natale al campo 119 · as Nane, Il Veneziano |
| 1947 | Shamed · as Rocco |
| 1947 | Tragic Hunt · as Michele |
| 1946 | Desire · as Nando Mancini |
| 1945 | The Gates of Heaven · as The Blind Youth |
| 1943 | Apparition · as Franco |
| 1943 | |
| 1942 | A Pilot Returns · as Il Tenente Gino Rossati |
| 1941 | Le due tigri · as Tremal-Naik |
| 1941 | Pirates of Malaya · as Tremal-Naik |
| 1941 | The Iron Crown · as Arminio / King Licinio |
| 1941 | The Story of Tosca · as Angeloti |
| 1940 | A Romantic Adventure · as Luciano |
| 1939 | Dora Nelson · as Enrico |