Acting · Mogliano, Macerata, Italy · Born May 18, 1918
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.
MovieCinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita
2021
as Self (archive footage)
MovieFacing Windows
2003
as Simone / Davide Veroli
MovieLuchino Visconti
2002
as Self (archive footage)
Der Kardinal - Der Preis der Liebe
2000
as Donato
Un bel dì vedremo
1996
as Emilio Venditti
MovieThe Monster
1994
as il condomino distinto
L'Amore Dopo
1993
as Ing. Staino
MovieFrom Night to Dawn
1992
as Vergiotti
TVDer Erfolg ihres Lebens
1990
as Le comte di Falco
TVThe French Revolution
1989
as L'envoyé du Pape (« Les Années Lumière »)
MovieThe French Revolution
1989
as Envoyé du Pape
MovieAffairs
1989
as Count Valery Du Terrail
MovieLa Bohème
1988
as The Old Pretender / Featuring
TVDer Ochsenkrieg
1987
as Someier
MovieThe Berlin Affair
1985
as Werner von Heiden
TVChristopher Columbus
1985
as Duca Medina Coeli
TVQuo Vadis?
1985
as Aulus Plautius
MovieArt of Love
1983
as Ovid
MoviePassion of Love
1981
as Colonel
Un reietto delle isole
1980
as Tom Lingard
MovieL'Ultimo Aereo per Venezia
1977
as Marcello Masini
MovieKolossal - The Magnificent Macisti
1977
TVOrigins of the Mafia
1976
as Viceroy Caracciolo
MovieAnd Agnes Chose To Die
1976
as Palita
MovieMr. Klein
1976
as Charles, Florence's husband
MovieThe Innocent
1976
as Count Stefano Egano
MovieMark Shoots First
1975
as Il Questore Spaini
MovieThe Suspicious Death of a Minor
1975
as Gaudenzio Pesce
MovieCagliostro
1975
as Giacomo Casanova
MovieThe Kiss
1974
as Eugenio Dazzi
MovieStateline Motel
1973
as Fred Norton
MovieThe Voracious Ones
1973
as Olmi
MovieLast Tango in Paris
1972
as Marcel
MovieMy Body With Anger
1972
as Gabriele
MovieBaron Blood
1972
as Dr. Karl Hummel
TVIl segno del comando
1971
as George Powell
MovieMedea
1969
as Creonte
MovieThe Red Tent
1969
as Giuseppe Romagna Manoja
MovieLa coppia
1969
as Guido
MovieThe Sisters
1969
as Alex
TVJekyll
1969
as John Utterson
MovieListen, Let's Make Love
1968
as Tassi
MovieTheorem
1968
as Paolo, the Father
MovieThe Witches
1967
as Sportsman (segment "La strega bruciata viva")
MovieThe Mysterious Mr. Van Eyck
1966
as Friend of Charles
MovieIdoli controluce
1965
as Ugo Sanfelice
MovieMarco the Magnificent
1965
as Nicolo, Marco's Father
MovieGold for the Caesars
1963
as Pro-consul Caius Cornelius Maximus)
MovieMafia alla sbarra
1963
MovieThe Shortest Day
1963
as Capitano alla finestra (uncredited)
MovieImperial Venus
1962
as Leclerc
MovieRomulus and Remus
1961
as Tazio
MovieThe Giants of Thessaly
1960
as Orfeo
MovieLetters of a Novice
1960
as Don Paolo Conti
MovieThe Cossacks
1960
as Tsar Alexander II
MovieCavalcata selvaggia
1960
as Lorenzo
MovieNights of the Teddy Boys
1959
as Constantino's Father
MovieLa cento chilometri
1959
as Toccaceli
MovieWolves in the Abyss
1959
as Comandante
MovieThe Head of a Tyrant
1959
as Holofernes
MovieAsphalt
1959
as Éric
MovieHerod the Great
1959
as Ottaviano
MovieThe Year Long Road
1958
as Chiacchiera (Naklapalo)
MovieGoddess Of Love
1957
as Prassitele
MovieLa trovatella di Pompei
1957
as Guglielmo Curti
MovieLa bestia humana
1957
as Pedro Sandoval
MovieIt Happened in Rome
1957
as Ugo Parenti
MovieSaranno uomini
1957
as Don Antonio
MovieFour of the Thundering Jet
1955
as Maggiore Montanari
MovieMarguerite of the Night
1955
as Valentin
MovieDisperato addio
1955
as dottor Andrea Pitti
MovieSenso
1954
as Il Marchese Roberto Ussoni
La tua donna
1954
as Sandro Ademari
MovieThe Love of a Woman
1953
as André Lorenz
MovieVortice
1953
as Dr. Guido Aureli
MovieAt the Edge of the City
1953
as Avv. Roberto Martini
MovieA Husband for Anna
1953
as Andrea Grazzi
MovieSul ponte dei sospiri
1953
as Marco Spada
MovieSins of Rome
1953
as Spartacus
MovieIl segreto delle tre punte
1952
as Massimo Dal Colle
MovieLieutenant Giorgio
1952
as Tenente Giorgio Biserta
MovieFugitive in Trieste
1952
as Fred Nolan
MovieLeathernose
1952
as Doctor Marchal
MovieRome 11:00
1952
as Nando the Unemployed
MovieBehind Closed Shutters
1951
as Ingegnere Roberto
Land der Sehnsucht
1950
MovieStory of a Love Affair
1950
as Guido
MovieDuel Without Honor
1950
as Carlo
MovieIn the Name of the Law
1949
as Il pretore Guido Schiavi
MovieFabiola
1949
as Sebastian
MovieAltura
1949
as Stanis Archena
MovieDifficult Years
1948
as Giovanni Piscitello
MovieWoman Trouble
1948
as Paolo Bertoni
MovieLost Youth
1948
as Marcello Mariani
MovieChristmas at Camp 119
1947
as Nane, il veneziano
MovieTragic Hunt
1947
as Michele
MovieShamed
1947
as Rocco
MovieFatalità
1947
as Vincenzo Masi
MovieDesire
1946
as Nando Mancini
MovieA Day in the Life
1946
as Luigi Monotti
MovieThe Gates of Heaven
1945
as The blind youth
MovieLa carne e l'anima
1945
as Andrea
MovieI dieci comandamenti
1945
as (segment "Ricordati di santificare le feste")
MovieApparizione
1943
as Franco
MovieObsession
1943
as Gino Costa
MovieHarlem
1943
as Tommaso Rossi
MovieA Pilot Returns
1942
as Lieutenant Gino Rossati
MovieLa famiglia Brambilla in vacanza
1941
as Marco Sassoli
MovieLe due tigri
1941
as Tremal-Naik
MovieI pirati della Malesia
1941
as Tremal-Naik
MovieThe Iron Crown
1941
as Arminio / King Licinio
MovieDora Nelson
1939
as Enrico
