He was called "the Italian Laurence Olivier" - partly, certainly, because he looked a bit like Olivier, with his intense, introspective eyes. But partly because of his talent, which was great, absolutely great. On stage, first of all - he played everything and everyone, including Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (yes, he was that handsome), George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, James in Detective Story, Henry VIII in Anne of the Thousand Days, and countless Pirandellos, Shakespeares, Strindbergs... He was a (rare) Italian matinee idol.
And then the movies, which made him popular, not only in Italy. The one which made him a star was Puccini, a biopic of the composer, one of the biggest box-office hits of 1953, but that same year he was truly memorable as Gina Lollobrigida's meek professor husband in Mario Soldati's very good La Provinciale (for which he got the first of his two Silver Ribbons).
He made dozens of films, some excellent, some not-so good. Among the excellent, there are the two he made with Antonioni. In Le Amiche (one of the best Italian movies of the 50s) he plays Valentina Cortese's frustrated, cheating husband. In L'Avventura he's, of course, the lead as the vanished girl's lover. In both he is superb.
He had the gift - not too common, in Italy - of underacting, and another one - he could be believable as an intellectual. He's great for example in another big hit - of the 60s this time: La Calda Vita, as the older man who is seduced by nymphet Catherine Spaak.
The Antonioni movies especially had made him famous abroad, so he appeared in a number of international movies too (he could speak English reasonably well): Negulesco's bad Jessica, Marcel Carne's interesting Three Rooms in Manhattan, John Huston's unnecessary The Bible and - this was Italian, but made in English - Sergio Leone's iconic Once Upon a Time in the West. He also had the chance of playing a James Bond villain - but the movie, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, was the Lazemby one. He finally even acted with Laurence Olivier himself - sadly in an expensive blockbuster called Inchon which was a disaster.
Hearing him speaking Italian was a joy - an absolutely perfect diction, every vowel, every syllable, pronounced with a rigor which is today rare.
In 2009 he was in his last important film, the Oscar-nominated I Am Love, as the family's patriarch.
R.I.P. Gabriele Ferzetti
R.I.P. Gabriele Ferzetti
Italian Actor Gabriele Ferzetti, Co-Star Of Antonioni’s ‘L’Avventura,’ Dies At 90
DECEMBER 3, 2015 | 04:58AM PT
Nick Vivarelli
International Correspondent
ROME – Gabriele Ferzetti, the silently seductive Italian actor who rose to international prominence during the 1950’s and 60’s, when he played a dissolute playboy opposite Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni’s melancholy masterpiece “L’Avventura,” died in Rome on Wednesday. He was 90.
Ferzetti’s stage, screen and TV career spanned seven decades all the way to his role as a Milanese patriarch in Luca Guadagnino’s “I Am Love,” in 2009.
His more memorable international credits – among more than 160 titles – comprise playing Lot in John Huston’s “The Bible,” the role of Morton the railroad baron in “Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and mob boss Draco in 1969 James Bond pic “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
In Italy Ferzetti worked with many of the best directors of his day, including opposite Gina Lollobrigida in Mario Soldati’s “La Provinciale,” with Elio Petri (“We Still Kill The Old Way”), Ettore Scola, Florestano Vancini, and Liliana Cavani, in whose “The Night Porter,” he played Hans, a former Nazi.
Born in Rome March 17, 1925, Ferzetti attended Rome’s Silvio d’Amico drama school very young while also making his debut on the silver screen at 17 in Luigi Chiarini’s 1942 “Via delle cinque lune.” In the early postwar period Luchino Visconti kickstarted his long and glorious career on the Italian stage by offering him a part in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”
Ferzetti first worked with Antonioni on 1955 melodrama “Le Amiche” in which he plays an unsuccessful artist. Their collaboration soared with “L’Aventura,” in which he played a failed architect and restless womaniser on a boat trip around Italy’s Aeolian islands with his wife and other wealthy people, mostly importantly Claudia played by Monica Vitti. After being booed at Cannes in 1960 “L’Aventura” went on to become a huge critical success with Pauline Kael picking it as the best film of that year. It is now widely considered among the greatest films ever made.
Ferzetti worked frequently in television in his later years, including regular roles as a character named Nono in French skein “Une Famille Formidable.”
Survivors include his daughter Anna Ferzetti, also an actress, who starred in hit Italo cross media series “An Imperfect Mom.”
DECEMBER 3, 2015 | 04:58AM PT
Nick Vivarelli
International Correspondent
ROME – Gabriele Ferzetti, the silently seductive Italian actor who rose to international prominence during the 1950’s and 60’s, when he played a dissolute playboy opposite Monica Vitti in Michelangelo Antonioni’s melancholy masterpiece “L’Avventura,” died in Rome on Wednesday. He was 90.
Ferzetti’s stage, screen and TV career spanned seven decades all the way to his role as a Milanese patriarch in Luca Guadagnino’s “I Am Love,” in 2009.
His more memorable international credits – among more than 160 titles – comprise playing Lot in John Huston’s “The Bible,” the role of Morton the railroad baron in “Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in the West,” and mob boss Draco in 1969 James Bond pic “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
In Italy Ferzetti worked with many of the best directors of his day, including opposite Gina Lollobrigida in Mario Soldati’s “La Provinciale,” with Elio Petri (“We Still Kill The Old Way”), Ettore Scola, Florestano Vancini, and Liliana Cavani, in whose “The Night Porter,” he played Hans, a former Nazi.
Born in Rome March 17, 1925, Ferzetti attended Rome’s Silvio d’Amico drama school very young while also making his debut on the silver screen at 17 in Luigi Chiarini’s 1942 “Via delle cinque lune.” In the early postwar period Luchino Visconti kickstarted his long and glorious career on the Italian stage by offering him a part in Shakespeare’s “As You Like It.”
Ferzetti first worked with Antonioni on 1955 melodrama “Le Amiche” in which he plays an unsuccessful artist. Their collaboration soared with “L’Aventura,” in which he played a failed architect and restless womaniser on a boat trip around Italy’s Aeolian islands with his wife and other wealthy people, mostly importantly Claudia played by Monica Vitti. After being booed at Cannes in 1960 “L’Aventura” went on to become a huge critical success with Pauline Kael picking it as the best film of that year. It is now widely considered among the greatest films ever made.
Ferzetti worked frequently in television in his later years, including regular roles as a character named Nono in French skein “Une Famille Formidable.”
Survivors include his daughter Anna Ferzetti, also an actress, who starred in hit Italo cross media series “An Imperfect Mom.”