Vittorio Gassman

Born in Genoa to a wealthy family of German origins, Gassmann was considered one among the best Italian actors and is commonly recalled as an extremely professional, versatile, magnetic interpreter, whose long career includes both important productions as well as dozens of divertissements (which gave him a vast popularity).

While very young he moved to Rome, where he attended the studies at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica[?] where some of the most important figures of Italian theatre and cinema also studied, such as Paolo Stoppa[?], Rina Morelli[?], Adolfo Celi[?], Luigi Squarzina[?], Elio Pandolfi[?], Rossella Falk[?], Lea Padovani[?] and, later, with Paolo Panelli[?], Nino Manfredi[?], Tino Buazzelli[?], Gianrico Tedeschi[?], Monica Vitti[?], Luca Ronconi[?] and many others.

His debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemi's Nemica (theatre), he then moved to Rome and the Teatro Eliseo joining Tino Carraro and Ernesto Calindri in a team that remained famous; with them he acted in a range of plays from bourgeois comedy to the sophisticated intellectual theatre, with no apparent difficulty in the sudden changes.

In 1946 he made his film debut in Preludio d'amore, the year after he appeared in five films. In 1948 his famous interpretation in Riso Amaro displayed his love for cinema and his capability of excelling both in movies and at the theatre.

It was with Luchino Visconti's company that Gassman achieved his mature successes, together with Stoppa, Rina Morelli and Paola Borboni[?]. He played a vigorous Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' Un tram che si chiama desiderio, then emphatic in Shakespeare's Rosalinda[?] or in Vittorio Alfieri[?]'s Oreste. He then joined the Teatro Nazionale with Tommaso Salvini, Massimo Girotti, Arnoldo Foà[?], for a successful Peer Gynt[?] (Ibsen[?]).

With Luigi Squarzina in 1952 he co-founded and co-directed the Teatro d'Arte Italiano, producing the first complete version of Hamlet in Italy, then rare works such as Seneca's Tieste or Eschilo[?]'s The Persians.

In 1956, a key year in his career, Gassman played a memorable Othello with the great actor Salvo Randone[?], exchanging with him the roles of the Moor and Iago. A little later, in the television series entitled Il Mattatore (spotlight chaser) he obtained unexpected success and Il Mattatore soon became the nickname that accompanied him for the rest of his life. That year Gassman also directed and starred in a movie dedicated to theatre: it was a version of Kean[?].

A true perfectionist, he always hated imperfect diction, or dialectal corruptions (but he was also able to render, perfectly and when needed, most of the many Italian dialects). Quite bravely, he accepted the challenge of directing Adelchi, one of the less known and less "easy" works by Alessandro Manzoni. He toured his production to half a million spectators, crossing Italy with his Teatro Popolare Itinerante (a newer edition of the famous Carro di Tespi).

His productions include most of the famous authors of 20th century, with repeated returns tothe classics of Shakespeare, Dostoevskij and the Greeks. He also founded a theatre school in Florence, which formed many of the more talented actors of the current generations.

In cinema he worked abroad several times and during a stint in Hollywood he met and married Shelley Winters.

But, despite his success in films, Gassman never left theatre. In the later part of his career, he added poetry to his repertoire, helping to bring to Italy foreign works.

Gassman the actor, married "only" actresses: Nora Ricci[?] (with whom he had his first daughter Paola, an actress herself and wife of Ugo Pagliai), Shelley Winters, Juliette Maynel, who gave him Alessandro (also an actor), and Diletta D'Andrea[?].

Gassman was a man of intense emotions and intellectual honesty; his notable sense of humour and self-irony, brought him in the 1990s to take part in a popular TV show in which he very formally and 'seriously' recited documents such as the gas invoice, as well as the telephone bill and similar texts. He rendered them with the same professional skill that made him famous while reciting Dante's Commedia.

Generally acclaimed as an actor, Gassman was also discussed as a man, due to his private life - his divorces (a noted scandal in 1950s and 60s), his initial atheism (later he gained a certain personalistic faith). Also, in his public appearances on the media he often gave original or unconventional comments, sometimes with the clear intention of disturbing the moderated cultural positions; he also gained many enemies in the world of art for similarly frank judgements.

In his latest years he was victim of depression.

He died of a heart-attack in his Roman home.

Filmography - Actor
(Gassman was in more than a hundred films, that become some more too with the many instantaneous cameos; the list is consequently not complete)

• La Bomba, (1999)
• Luchino Visconti (1999)
• La Cena (1998)
• Un homme digne de confiance (1997)
• Deserto di fuoco" (1997) TV Series
• Sleepers (1996)
• Tutti gli anni una volta l'anno (1994)
• Abraham (1994) (TV)
• Quando eravamo repressi (1992)
• Tolgo il disturbo (1992)
• El Largo invierno (1991)
• Rossini! Rossini! (1991)
• I Divertimenti della vita privata (1990)
• Les Mille et une nuits, Les (1990)
• Dimenticare Palermo (1990)
• Mortacci (1989)
• Lo Zio indegno (1989)
• I Picari (1988)
• I Soliti ignoti vent'anni dopo (1987) aka Big Deal After 20 Years
• La Famiglia (1987) aka The Family
• Paradigma (1985) aka Power of Evil
• Benvenuta (1983)
• La Vie est un roman(1983) aka Life Is a Bed of Roses
• Il Conte Tacchia (1982) aka Count Tacchia
• Di padre in figlio (1982)
• Tempest (1982)
• Il Turno (1981)
• Sharky's Machine (1981)
• Camera d'albergo (1981) aka Chambre d'hôtel
• Sono fotogenico (1980)
• La Terrazza (1980) aka The Terrace
• The Nude Bomb (1980) aka Maxwell Smart and the Nude Bomb
• Quintet (1979)
• Caro papà (1979) aka Dear Father
• Due pezzi di pane (1978) aka Happy Hobos
• I Nuovi mostri (1978) aka Th eNew Monsters
• A Wedding (1978)
• Anima persa (1977) aka The Forbidden Room
• Come una rosa al naso (1976) aka Pure as a Lily
• IL Deserto dei Tartari (1976) aka The Desert of the Tartars
• Signore e signori, buonanotte (1976)
• Telefoni bianchi (1976)
• A mezzanotte va la ronda del piacere (1975) aka Midnight Pleasures
• C'eravamo tanto amati (1974) We All Loved Each Other So Much
• Profumo di donna (1974) aka Scent of a Woman
• Che c'entriamo noi con la rivoluzione? (1973)
• La Tosca (1973)
• Senza famiglia, nullatenenti cercano affetto (1972)
• In nome del popolo italiano (1971)
• Scipione detto anche l'africano (1971) aka Scipio the African
• L'Udienza (1971) aka The Audience
• Brancaleone alle crociate (1970) aka Brancaleone at the Crusades *Contestazione generale (1970)
• Il Divorzio (1970)
• L'Alibi (1969) aka Alibi
• L'Arcangelo (1969)
• Dove vai tutta nuda? (1969) aka Where Are You Going All Naked?
• Una su 13 (1969) aka The 13 Chairs
• La Pecora nera (1968) aka The Black Sheep
• Questi fantasmi (1968) aka Ghosts - Italian Style
• Il Profetal (1968)
• Lo Scatenato (1967)
• Il Tigre (1967)
• Woman Times Seven (1967)
• L'Arcidiavolo (1966) aka Devil in Love
• L'Armata Brancaleone (1966)
• Le Piacevoli notti (1966)
• Slalom (1965)
• Una Vergine per il principe (1965) aka Virgin for the Prince
• The Dirty Game, (1965)
• La Congiuntura, (1964) aka Hard Time for Princes
• Il Gaucho (1964)
• Se permettete parliamo di donne (1964) aka Let's Talk About Women
• Frenesia dell'estate (1963)
• La Smania addosso (1963)
• Il Successo (1963)
• I Mostri (1963)
• Amore difficile (1962) aka Sex Can Be Difficult
• Il Giorno più corto (1962)
• La Marcia su Roma (1962) aka March on Rome
• Il Sorpasso (1962) aka The Easy Life
• Barabbas (1962)
• Anima nera (1961)
• I Briganti italiani (1961)
• Fantasmi a Roma (1961) aka Ghosts of Rome
• Una Vita difficile, (1961) aka A Difficult Life
• Il Giudizio universale (1961) aka The Last Judgement
• Crimen (1960) aka Killing in Monte Carlo
• Il Mattatore (1960)
• Audace colpo dei soliti ignoti (1959) aka Hold-up à la milanaise
• La Cambiale (1959)
• La Grande guerra (1959) aka The Great War
• The Miracle (1959)
• Le Sorprese dell'amore (1959)
• La Tempesta (1958)
• I Soliti ignoti (1958) aka The Usual Unidentified Thieves
• La Ragazza del palio (1957)
• Difendo il mio amore (1956)
• Giovanni dalle bande nere (1956)
• Kean (1956)
• War and Peace (1956)
• La Donna più bella del mondo, (1955)
• Mambo (1954)
• Rhapsody (1954)
• Sombrero (1953)
• Glass Wall (1953)
• Cry of the Hunted (1953)
• Il Sogno di Zorro (1952)
• Anna (1951)
• La Corona negra (1951)
• Il Leone di Amalfi (1950)
• I Fuorilegge, (1949) aka TheOutlaws
• Ho sognato il paradiso (1949) aka Streets of Sorrow
• Il Lupo della Sila, (1949)
• Lo Sparviero del Nilo, (1949)
• Il Tradimento, (1949)
• Una Voce nel tuo cuore, (1949)
• Riso amaro (1948) aka Bitter Rice
• Le Avventure di Pinocchio, (1947) aka The Adventures of Pinocchio
• Il Cavaliere misterioso (1947) aka The Mysterious Rider
• Daniele Cortis (1947)
• L'Ebreo errante (1947) aka The Wandering Jew, (1947)
• La Figlia del capitano (1947) aka The Captain's Daughter
• Preludio d'amore (1946) aka Love Prelude

Filmography - Director

• Di padre in figlio (1982)
• Senza famiglia, nullatenenti cercano affetto (1972)
• L'Alibi (1969)
• Kean (1956)