1918-05-18 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.
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Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita | Self (archive footage) | 2021-05-16 |
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La finestra di fronte | Simone / Davide Veroli | 2003-02-27 |
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Luchino Visconti | Self (archive footage) | 2002-06-23 |
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Der Kardinal - Der Preis der Liebe | Donato | 2000-12-25 |
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Un bel dì vedremo | Emilio Venditti | 1996-01-01 |
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Il mostro | il condomino distinto | 1994-10-22 |
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L'Amore Dopo | Ing. Staino | 1993-01-01 |
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Dalla notte all'alba | Vergiotti | 1992-02-23 |
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Rebus | Count Valery Du Terrail | 1989-02-16 |
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La Révolution française | Envoyé du Pape | 1989-05-10 |
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La Bohème | The Old Pretender / Featuring | 1988-03-09 |
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Interno berlinese | Werner von Heiden | 1985-10-03 |
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Ars amandi | Ovid | 1983-12-07 |
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Passione d'amore | Colonel | 1981-09-16 |
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Un reietto delle isole | Tom Lingard | 1980-10-31 |
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L'Ultimo Aereo per Venezia | Marcello Masini | 1977-06-07 |
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Mr. Klein | Charles, Florence's husband | 1976-09-23 |
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L'Agnese va a morire | Palita | 1976-09-26 |
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L'innocente | Count Stefano Egano | 1976-05-18 |
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Morte sospetta di una minorenne | Gaudenzio Pesce | 1975-08-12 |
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Cagliostro | Giacomo Casanova | 1975-02-21 |
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Mark il poliziotto spara per primo | Il Questore Spaini | 1975-12-22 |
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Il bacio | Eugenio Dazzi | 1974-08-22 |
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Les Voraces | Olmi | 1973-01-11 |
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L'ultima chance | Fred Norton | 1973-09-14 |
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Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga | Dr. Karl Hummel | 1972-02-25 |
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Il mio corpo con rabbia | Gabriele | 1972-12-01 |
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Ultimo tango a Parigi | Marcel | 1972-12-15 |
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La coppia | Guido | 1969-10-23 |
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Красная палатка | Giuseppe Romagna Manoja | 1969-12-23 |
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Le Sorelle | Alex | 1969-09-08 |
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Medea | Creonte | 1969-12-28 |
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Teorema | Paolo, the Father | 1968-09-07 |
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Scusi, facciamo l'amore? | Tassi | 1968-09-13 |
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Le streghe | Sportsman (segment "La strega bruciata viva") | 1967-02-22 |
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El misterioso señor Van Eyck | Friend of Charles | 1966-03-10 |
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Idoli controluce | Ugo Sanfelice | 1965-11-12 |
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La Fabuleuse Aventure de Marco Polo | Nicolo, Marco's Father | 1965-08-06 |
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Il giorno più corto | Capitano alla finestra (uncredited) | 1963-02-14 |
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Oro per i Cesari | Pro-consul Caius Cornelius Maximus) | 1963-03-09 |
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Mafia alla sbarra | 1963-02-15 | |
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Venere imperiale | Leclerc | 1962-12-22 |
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Romolo e Remo | Tazio | 1961-12-06 |
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Cavalcata selvaggia | Lorenzo | 1960-01-01 |
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Lettere di una novizia | Don Paolo Conti | 1960-12-01 |
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I giganti della Tessaglia | Orfeo | 1960-12-06 |
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I cosacchi | Tsar Alexander II | 1960-02-04 |
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Erode il grande | Ottaviano | 1959-01-01 |
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Asphalte | Éric | 1959-02-18 |
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Giuditta e Oloferne | Holofernes | 1959-02-26 |
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Le notti dei Teddy Boys | Constantino's Father | 1959-10-03 |
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La cento chilometri | Toccaceli | 1959-09-09 |
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Lupi nell'abisso | Comandante | 1959-06-23 |
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La strada lunga un anno | Chiacchiera (Naklapalo) | 1958-07-11 |
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La bestia humana | Pedro Sandoval | 1957-07-12 |
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Souvenir d'Italie | Ugo Parenti | 1957-04-08 |
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Saranno uomini | Don Antonio | 1957-03-23 |
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La trovatella di Pompei | Guglielmo Curti | 1957-07-25 |
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La Venere di Cheronea | Prassitele | 1957-12-05 |
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I quattro del getto tonante | Maggiore Montanari | 1955-12-30 |
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Marguerite de la nuit | Valentin | 1955-12-29 |
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Disperato addio | dottor Andrea Pitti | 1955-09-06 |
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La tua donna | Sandro Ademari | 1954-01-01 |
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Senso | Il Marchese Roberto Ussoni | 1954-03-25 |
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Spartaco - Il gladiatore della Tracia | Spartacus | 1953-01-28 |
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Vortice | Dr. Guido Aureli | 1953-11-13 |
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L'Amour d'une femme | André Lorenz | 1953-12-13 |
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Ai margini della metropoli | Avv. Roberto Martini | 1953-10-16 |
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Sul ponte dei sospiri | Marco Spada | 1953-08-21 |
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Un marito per Anna Zaccheo | Andrea Grazzi | 1953-08-22 |
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Il tenente Giorgio | Tenente Giorgio Biserta | 1952-06-27 |
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Roma, ore 11 | Nando the Unemployed | 1952-02-27 |
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Clandestino a Trieste | Fred Nolan | 1952-04-18 |
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Nez de cuir | Doctor Marchal | 1952-03-26 |
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Il segreto delle tre punte | Massimo Dal Colle | 1952-09-26 |
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Persiane chiuse | Ingegnere Roberto | 1951-03-08 |
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Land der Sehnsucht | 1950-12-31 | |
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Cronaca di un amore | Guido | 1950-11-03 |
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Duello senza onore | Carlo | 1950-01-05 |
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Altura | Stanis Archena | 1949-01-12 |
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Fabiola | Sebastian | 1949-03-03 |
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In nome della legge | Il pretore Guido Schiavi | 1949-03-13 |
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Molti sogni per le strade | Paolo Bertoni | 1948-10-17 |
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Anni difficili | Giovanni Piscitello | 1948-12-28 |
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Gioventù perduta | Marcello Mariani | 1948-04-02 |
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Natale al campo 119 | Nane, il veneziano | 1947-12-22 |
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Caccia tragica | Michele | 1947-11-04 |
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Fatalità | Vincenzo Masi | 1947-05-02 |
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Preludio d'amore | 1946-01-01 | |
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Desiderio | Nando Mancini | 1946-09-09 |
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Un giorno nella vita | Luigi Monotti | 1946-04-05 |
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I dieci comandamenti | (segment "Ricordati di santificare le feste") | 1945-01-08 |
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La porta del cielo | The blind youth | 1945-02-16 |
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La carne e l'anima | Andrea | 1945-01-11 |
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Ossessione | Gino Costa | 1944-04-08 |
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Harlem | Tommaso Rossi | 1943-04-21 |
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Apparizione | Franco | 1943-12-23 |
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Un pilota ritorna | Lieutenant Gino Rossati | 1942-04-08 |
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La corona di ferro | Arminio / King Licinio | 1941-09-07 |
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I pirati della Malesia | Tremal-Naik | 1941-10-18 |
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La famiglia Brambilla in vacanza | Marco Sassoli | 1941-12-18 |
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Le due tigri | Tremal-Naik | 1941-11-29 |
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Dora Nelson | Enrico | 1939-12-01 |