Italian screen and television actor. He first appeared as an uncredited extra in Luchino Visconti's "Il Gattopardo/The Leopard" in 1962. After many years mostly as a minor player in films, on television and in the theatre, a first breakthrough came in 1973, when he was starring in "Zanna Bianca alla riscossa/White Fang to the Rescue," a sequel to a very successful Western starring Franco Nero. Bearing a striking resemblance to Nero, he was cast as his replacement when Nero abandoned the venture. The picture was another success and led to his casting in the title-role of the television mini-series "Il giovane Garibaldi" in 1974, a big hit on Italian television. In 1975 he took the lead in the crime drama "Roma violenta/Violent City." It was a box-office smash all over Europe, making him an international star and establishing him as the leading man in the Italian crime film genre of this period, the "poliziottesco." Typecast in the same role as tough cop, he starred from 1975 to 1980 in more than a dozen flicks, being one of the top money-makers. With begin of the 1980s, when the era of the crime film comes to an end, the level of his work was just a fraction of his great times. A fitness fanatic his whole life, he died, only 49 years old, of a heart attack during a tennis match.
Italian screen and television actor. He first appeared as an uncredited extra in Luchino Visconti's "Il Gattopardo/The Leopard" in 1962. After many years mostly as a minor player in films, on television and in the theatre, a first breakthrough came in 1973, when he was starring in "Zanna Bianca alla riscossa/White Fang to the Rescue," a sequel to a very successful Western starring Franco Nero. Bearing a striking resemblance to Nero, he was cast as his replacement when Nero abandoned the venture. The picture was another success and led to his casting in the title-role of the television mini-series "Il giovane Garibaldi" in 1974, a big hit on Italian television. In 1975 he took the lead in the crime drama "Roma violenta/Violent City." It was a box-office smash all over Europe, making him an international star and establishing him as the leading man in the Italian crime film genre of this period, the "poliziottesco." Typecast in the same role as tough cop, he starred from 1975 to 1980 in more than a dozen flicks, being one of the top money-makers. With begin of the 1980s, when the era of the crime film comes to an end, the level of his work was just a fraction of his great times. A fitness fanatic his whole life, he died, only 49 years old, of a heart attack during a tennis match.
Bio by: Fritz Tauber
Advertisement
