Acting
Massimo Girotti
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.
Filmography
Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita
Film · 2021
A Film that Paved the Way
Film · 2009
Facing Windows
Film · 2003
Luchino Visconti
Film · 2002
Der Kardinal - Der Preis der Liebe
Film · 2000
Un bel dì vedremo
Film · 1996
The Monster
Film · 1994
L'Amore Dopo
Film · 1993
Dalla notte all'alba
Series · 1992
Der Erfolg ihres Lebens
Series · 1990
The French Revolution
Film · 1989
Affairs
Film · 1989
The French Revolution
Series · 1989
La Bohème
Film · 1988
Der Ochsenkrieg
Series · 1987
The Berlin Affair
Film · 1985
Quo Vadis?
Series · 1985
Christopher Columbus
Series · 1985
Art of Love
Film · 1983
Passion of Love
Film · 1981
Un reietto delle isole
Film · 1980
L'Ultimo Aereo per Venezia
Film · 1977
Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti
Film · 1977
The Innocent
Film · 1976
Mr. Klein
Film · 1976
And Agnes Chose to Die
Film · 1976
Origins of the Mafia
Series · 1976
The Suspicious Death of a Minor
Film · 1975
Mark Shoots First
Film · 1975
Cagliostro
Film · 1975
The Kiss
Film · 1974
The Voracious Ones
Film · 1973
Stateline Motel
Film · 1973
Last Tango in Paris
Film · 1972
Baron Blood
Film · 1972
My Body With Anger
Film · 1972
Il segno del comando
Series · 1971
The Red Tent
Film · 1969
Medea
Film · 1969
The Sisters
Film · 1969
La coppia
Film · 1969
Jekyll
Series · 1969
Theorem
Film · 1968
Listen, Let's Make Love
Film · 1968
The Witches
Film · 1967
The Mysterious Mr. Van Eyck
Film · 1966
Marco the Magnificent
Film · 1965
Idoli controluce
Film · 1965
Mafia alla sbarra
Film · 1963
Gold for the Caesars
Film · 1963
The Shortest Day
Film · 1963
Imperial Venus
Film · 1962
Romulus and Remus
Film · 1961
Letters of a Novice
Film · 1960
The Giants of Thessaly
Film · 1960
The Cossacks
Film · 1960
Cavalcata selvaggia
Film · 1960
Wolves in the Abyss
Film · 1959
La cento chilometri
Film · 1959
Nights of the Teddy Boys
Film · 1959
The Head of a Tyrant
Film · 1959
Asphalt
Film · 1959
Herod the Great
Film · 1959
The Year Long Road
Film · 1958
La trovatella di Pompei
Film · 1957
Goddess Of Love
Film · 1957
It Happened in Rome
Film · 1957
La bestia humana
Film · 1957
Saranno uomini
Film · 1957
Marguerite of the Night
Film · 1955
Four of the Thundering Jet
Film · 1955
Disperato addio
Film · 1955
Senso
Film · 1954
La tua donna
Film · 1954
The Love of a Woman
Film · 1953
At the Edge of the City
Film · 1953
A Husband for Anna
Film · 1953
Vortice
Film · 1953
Sins of Rome
Film · 1953
Sul ponte dei sospiri
Film · 1953
Rome 11:00
Film · 1952
Leathernose
Film · 1952
Il segreto delle tre punte
Film · 1952
Lieutenant Giorgio
Film · 1952
Fugitive in Trieste
Film · 1952
Behind Closed Shutters
Film · 1951
Duel Without Honor
Film · 1950
Story of a Love Affair
Film · 1950
Land der Sehnsucht
Film · 1950
Fabiola
Film · 1949
In the Name of the Law
Film · 1949
Altura
Film · 1949
Difficult Years
Film · 1948
Woman Trouble
Film · 1948
Lost Youth
Film · 1948
Shamed
Film · 1947
Fatalità
Film · 1947
Tragic Hunt
Film · 1947
Christmas at Camp 119
Film · 1947
A Day in the Life
Film · 1946
Desire
Film · 1946
The Gates of Heaven
Film · 1945
La carne e l'anima
Film · 1945
I dieci comandamenti
Film · 1945
Obsession
Film · 1943
Harlem
Film · 1943
Apparizione
Film · 1943
A Pilot Returns
Film · 1942
The Iron Crown
Film · 1941
I pirati della Malesia
Film · 1941
Le due tigri
Film · 1941
La famiglia Brambilla in vacanza
Film · 1941
Dora Nelson
Film · 1939