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Massimo Girotti

Massimo Girotti

Actor · 1918 – 2003 · Mogliano, Macerata, Italy

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.

Movies24

  • Movie6.9

    Ultimo tango a Parigi

    Last Tango in Paris

    1972 · 1.4K votes

  • Movie7.0

    Teorema

    Theorem

    1968 · 460 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Mr. Klein

    1976 · 296 votes

  • Movie7.5

    La Révolution française

    The French Revolution

    1989 · 64 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Il mostro

    The Monster

    1994 · 668 votes

  • Movie6.6

    Passione d'amore

    Passion of Love

    1981 · 31 votes

  • Movie6.9

    L'innocente

    The Innocent

    1976 · 129 votes

  • Movie5.3

    Interno berlinese

    The Berlin Affair

    1985 · 28 votes

  • Movie6.0

    The Red Tent

    Красная палатка

    1969 · 74 votes

  • Movie7.0

    La finestra di fronte

    Facing Windows

    2003 · 336 votes

  • Movie6.6

    Medea

    1969 · 194 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Le streghe

    The Witches

    1967 · 79 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga

    Baron Blood

    1972 · 152 votes

  • Movie7.5

    Ossessione

    Obsession

    1943 · 276 votes

  • Movie5.2

    Romolo e Remo

    Romulus and Remus

    1961 · 29 votes

  • Movie4.8

    La Fabuleuse Aventure de Marco Polo

    Marco the Magnificent

    1965 · 12 votes

  • Movie6.6

    L'Agnese va a morire

    And Agnes Chose to Die

    1976 · 18 votes

  • Movie4.1

    Venere imperiale

    Imperial Venus

    1962 · 7 votes

  • Movie5.3

    L'ultima chance

    Stateline Motel

    1973 · 16 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Cronaca di un amore

    Story of a Love Affair

    1950 · 116 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Gioventù perduta

    Lost Youth

    1948 · 13 votes

  • Movie7.2

    Senso

    1954 · 256 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Souvenir d'Italie

    It Happened in Rome

    1957 · 8 votes

  • Movie6.1

    Morte sospetta di una minorenne

    The Suspicious Death of a Minor

    1975 · 64 votes

Series7

  • TV6.2

    Cristoforo Colombo

    Christopher Columbus

    1985 · 5 votes

  • TV8.0

    Alle origini della mafia

    Origins of the Mafia

    1976 · 1 votes

  • TV5.9

    Quo Vadis?

    1985 · 9 votes

  • TV8.7

    La Révolution Française

    The French Revolution

    1989 · 3 votes

  • TV8.1

    Il segno del comando

    1971 · 8 votes

  • TV5.3

    Der Ochsenkrieg

    1987 · 4 votes

  • TV6.5

    Jekyll

    1969 · 2 votes