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Vittorio GassmanKnight Grand CrossOMRI (Italian pronunciation:[vitˈtɔːrjoˈɡazman]; born Gassmann; 1 September 1922 – 29 June 2000),[1] popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter.[2]
He is considered one of the greatest Italian actors, whose career includes both important productions as well as dozens of divertissements.[3]
Gassman's debut was in
Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemi's La Nemica (theatre). He then moved to Rome and acted at the Teatro Eliseo joining
Tino Carraro and
Ernesto Calindri in a team that remained famous for some time; with them he acted in a range of plays from bourgeois comedy to sophisticated intellectual theatre. In 1946, he made his film debut in Preludio d'amore, while only one year later he appeared in five films. In 1948 he played in Riso amaro.
He directed Adelchi, a lesser-known work by
Alessandro Manzoni. Gassman brought this production to half a million spectators, crossing Italy with his Teatro Popolare Itinerante (a newer edition of the famous Carro di Tespi). His productions have included many of the famous authors and playwrights of the 20th century, with repeated returns to the classics of
Shakespeare,
Dostoyevsky and the
Greek tragicians. He also founded a theatre school in
Florence (
Bottega Teatrale di Firenze), which educated many of the more talented actors of the current generation of Italian thespians.[6]
In cinema, he worked frequently both in Italy and abroad. He met and fell in love with American actress
Shelley Winters while she was touring Europe with fiancé
Farley Granger. When Winters was forced to return to
Hollywood to fulfill contractual obligations, he followed her there and married her. With his natural charisma and his fluency in English he scored a number of roles in Hollywood, including Rhapsody with
Elizabeth Taylor and The Glass Wall before returning to Italy and the theatre.
In the 1990s he took part in the popular Italian
Rai 3 TV show Tunnel in which he very formally and "seriously"' recited documents such as utility bills, yellow pages and similar trivial texts, such as washing instructions for a wool sweater or cookies ingredients.[7] He rendered them with the same professional skill that made him famous while reciting
Dante's Divine Comedy.[8][9]
While rehearsing Hamlet, he began an affair with
Anna Maria Ferrero, his 16-year-old
Ophelia, which ended his marriage to Winters.[15] He and Winters were forced to work together on Mambo just as their marriage was unraveling, providing fodder for tabloids all over the world.
I Mostri (1963) as The Actor (segment "La Raccomandazione") / Policeman (segment "Il Mostro") / Production Assistant & Movie Director (segment "Presa dalla Vita") / Nicola (segment "Che Vitaccia!") / Blonde Latin Lover (segment "Latin Lovers-Amanti latini") / Defence Layer D'Amore (segment "Testimone volontario") / Richetto (segment "I due Orfanelli") / Roberto (segment "Il Sacrificato") / Elisa (segment "La Musa") / The Road Hog (segment "La Strada è di Tutti") / The Friar (segment "Il Testamento di Francesco") / Artemio Altidori (segment "La nobile Arte")
Anima persa (The Forbidden Room, 1977) as Fabio Stolz
I nuovi mostri (Via l'Italia!, 1977) as Il cardinale (segment "Tantum ergo") / Il cameriere (segment "Hostaria") / Il marito (segment "Sequestro di persona cara") / Il commissario (segment "Il sospetto") / Il padre di famiglia (segment "Cittadino esemplare")
^Born: 1 September 1922, Struppa (Genoa)Died: 29 June 2000, Rome.
"Vittorio Gassman | BFI | BFI". Explore.bfi.org.uk. Archived from
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