
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.
Known For
Credits
- 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
- 1989 · The French Revolution as Massimo Girotti: L'envoyé du Pape (segment "Anées Lumière, Les")
- 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
- 1985 · The Berlin Affair as Werner von Heiden
- 1985 · Christopher Columbus as Duca Medina Coeli
- 1985 · Quo Vadis? as Aulus Plautius
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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 as
- 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 as
- 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 as
- 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