Massimo Girotti

Massimo Girotti

Birthdate
May 18, 1918 (107 years old)
Place of Birth
Mogliano, Macerata, Italy
Date of Death
January 5, 2003
Known For
Acting

Details

Birthdate
May 18, 1918 (107 years old)
Place of Birth
Mogliano, Macerata, Italy
Date of Death
January 5, 2003
Known For
Acting

Biography

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.

Massimo Girotti's LGBTQ+ Titles

Theorem
Theorem
Paolo, the Father

Acting (111)

2021
Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita as Self (archive footage)
2003
Facing Windows as Simone / Davide Veroli
2002
Luchino Visconti as Self (archive footage)
2000
Der Kardinal - Der Preis der Liebe as Donato
1996
Un bel dì vedremo as Emilio Venditti
1994
The Monster as il condomino distinto
1993
L'Amore Dopo as Ing. Staino
1992
From Night to Dawn as Vergiotti
1990
Der Erfolg ihres Lebens as Le comte di Falco (4 episodes)
1989
The French Revolution as Massimo Girotti: L'envoyé du Pape (segment "Anées Lumière, Les") (2 episodes)
1989
The French Revolution as Envoyé du Pape
1989
Affairs as Count Valery Du Terrail
1988
La Bohème as The Old Pretender / Featuring
1987
Der Ochsenkrieg as Someier (6 episodes)
1985
The Berlin Affair as Werner von Heiden
1985
Christopher Columbus as Duca Medina Coeli (4 episodes)
1985
Quo Vadis? as Aulus Plautius (6 episodes)
1983
Art of Love as Ovid
1981
Passion of Love as Colonel
1980
Un reietto delle isole as Tom Lingard
1977
L'Ultimo Aereo per Venezia as Marcello Masini
1976
Origins of the Mafia as Viceroy Caracciolo (5 episodes)
1976
And Agnes Chose to Die as Palita
1976
Mr. Klein as Charles, Florence's husband
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
The Voracious Ones as Olmi
1972
Last Tango in Paris as Marcel
1972
My Body With Anger as Gabriele
1972
Baron Blood as Dr. Karl Hummel
1971
Il segno del comando as George Powell (5 episodes)
1969
Medea as Creonte
1969
The Red Tent as Giuseppe Romagna Manoja
1969
La coppia as Guido
1969
The Sisters as Alex
1969
Jekyll as John Utterson (4 episodes)
1968
Listen, Let's Make Love as Tassi
1968
Theorem as Paolo, the Father
1967
The Witches as Sportsman (segment "La strega bruciata viva")
1966
The Mysterious Mr. Van Eyck as Friend of Charles
1965
Idoli controluce as Ugo Sanfelice
1965
Marco the Magnificent as Nicolo, Marco's Father
1963
Gold for the Caesars as Pro-consul Caius Cornelius Maximus)
1963
Mafia alla sbarra
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
Letters of a Novice as Don Paolo Conti
1960
The Cossacks as Tsar Alexander II
1960
Cavalcata selvaggia as Lorenzo
1959
Nights of the Teddy Boys as Constantino's Father
1959
La cento chilometri as Toccaceli
1959
Wolves in the Abyss as Comandante
1959
The 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 trovatella di Pompei as Guglielmo Curti
1957
La bestia humana as Pedro Sandoval
1957
It Happened in Rome as Ugo Parenti
1957
Saranno uomini as Don Antonio
1955
Four of the Thundering Jet as Maggiore Montanari
1955
Marguerite of the Night 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
At the Edge of the City as Avv. Roberto Martini
1953
A Husband for Anna as Andrea Grazzi
1953
Sul ponte dei sospiri as Marco Spada
1953
Sins of Rome as Spartacus
1952
Il segreto delle tre punte as Massimo Dal Colle
1952
Lieutenant Giorgio as Tenente Giorgio Biserta
1952
Fugitive in Trieste as Fred Nolan
1952
Leathernose as Doctor Marchal
1952
Rome 11:00 as Nando the Unemployed
1951
Behind Closed Shutters as Ingegnere Roberto
1950
Land der Sehnsucht
1950
Story of a Love Affair as Guido
1950
Duel Without Honor as Carlo
1949
In the Name of the Law as Il pretore Guido Schiavi
1949
Fabiola as Sebastian
1949
Altura as Stanis Archena
1948
Difficult Years as Giovanni Piscitello
1948
Woman Trouble as Paolo Bertoni
1948
Lost Youth as Marcello Mariani
1947
Christmas at Camp 119 as Nane, il veneziano
1947
Tragic Hunt as Michele
1947
Fatalità as Vincenzo Masi
1946
Desire as Nando Mancini
1946
A Day in the Life as Luigi Monotti
1946
Preludio d'amore
1945
The Gate of Heaven as The blind youth
1945
La carne e l'anima as Andrea
1945
I dieci comandamenti as (segment "Ricordati di santificare le feste")
1944
Obsession as Gino Costa
1943
Apparizione as Franco
1943
Harlem as Tommaso Rossi
1942
A Pilot Returns as Il tenente Gino Rossati
1941
La famiglia Brambilla in vacanza as Marco Sassoli
1941
Le due tigri as Tremal-Naik
1941
I pirati della Malesia as Tremal-Naik
1941
The Iron Crown as Arminio / King Licinio
1939
Dora Nelson as Enrico