Massimo Girotti
Known for Acting · 112 credits
- Born
- 1918-05-18
- Died
- 2003-01-05
- Place of birth
- Mogliano, Macerata, Italy
- Also known as
- Массимо Джиротти
Biography
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).
Known For
TV Shows (8)
Christopher Columbus
1985
as Duca Medina Coeli
The French Revolution
1989
as L'envoyé du Pape (« Les Années Lumière »)
Origins of the Mafia
1976
as Viceroy Caracciolo
Der Ochsenkrieg
1987
as Someier
Quo Vadis?
1985
as Aulus Plautius
Il segno del comando
1971
as George Powell
Der Erfolg ihres Lebens
1990
as Le comte di Falco
Jekyll
1969
as John Utterson
Movies (104)
Last Tango in Paris
1972
as Marcel
Passion of Love
1981
as Colonel
Mr. Klein
1976
as Charles, Florence's husband
The French Revolution
1989
as Envoyé du Pape
Theorem
1968
as Paolo, the Father
Lost Youth
1948
as Marcello Mariani
Baron Blood
1972
as Dr. Karl Hummel
The Monster
1994
as il condomino distinto
The Berlin Affair
1985
as Werner von Heiden
Saranno uomini
1957
as Don Antonio
Imperial Venus
1962
as Leclerc
The Red Tent
1969
as Giuseppe Romagna Manoja
The Innocent
1976
as Count Stefano Egano
Facing Windows
2003
as Simone / Davide Veroli
The Shortest Day
1963
as Capitano alla finestra (uncredited)
Senso
1954
as Il Marchese Roberto Ussoni
Romulus and Remus
1961
as Tazio
The Witches
1967
as Sportsman (segment "La strega bruciata viva")
It Happened in Rome
1957
as Ugo Parenti
Obsession
1943
as Gino Costa
Marco the Magnificent
1965
as Nicolo, Marco's Father
Art of Love
1983
as Ovid
Marguerite of the Night
1955
as Valentin
Affairs
1989
as Count Valery Du Terrail
Letters of a Novice
1960
as Don Paolo Conti
Story of a Love Affair
1950
as Guido
The Love of a Woman
1953
as André Lorenz
The Giants of Thessaly
1960
as Orfeo
The Sisters
1969
as Alex
Stateline Motel
1973
as Fred Norton
Asphalt
1959
as Éric
Herod the Great
1959
as Ottaviano
Rome 11:00
1952
as Nando the Unemployed
Kolossal - The Magnificent Macisti
1977
And Agnes Chose To Die
1976
as Palita
Mark Shoots First
1975
as Il Questore Spaini
Apparizione
1943
as Franco
Difficult Years
1948
as Giovanni Piscitello
Medea
1969
as Creonte
At the Edge of the City
1953
as Avv. Roberto Martini
Sul ponte dei sospiri
1953
as Marco Spada
The Suspicious Death of a Minor
1975
as Gaudenzio Pesce
Leathernose
1952
as Doctor Marchal
Luchino Visconti
2002
as Self (archive footage)
Desire
1946
as Nando Mancini
In the Name of the Law
1949
as Il pretore Guido Schiavi
Lieutenant Giorgio
1952
as Tenente Giorgio Biserta
I dieci comandamenti
1945
as (segment "Ricordati di santificare le feste")
Woman Trouble
1948
as Paolo Bertoni
Tragic Hunt
1947
as Michele
A Pilot Returns
1942
as Lieutenant Gino Rossati
Listen, Let's Make Love
1968
as Tassi
The Kiss
1974
as Eugenio Dazzi
The Iron Crown
1941
as Arminio / King Licinio
Gold for the Caesars
1963
as Pro-consul Caius Cornelius Maximus)
Goddess Of Love
1957
as Prassitele
Behind Closed Shutters
1951
as Ingegnere Roberto
The Cossacks
1960
as Tsar Alexander II
Fabiola
1949
as Sebastian
The Gates of Heaven
1945
as The blind youth
La cento chilometri
1959
as Toccaceli
Vortice
1953
as Dr. Guido Aureli
A Husband for Anna
1953
as Andrea Grazzi
Cagliostro
1975
as Giacomo Casanova
La bestia humana
1957
as Pedro Sandoval
Sins of Rome
1953
as Spartacus
My Body With Anger
1972
as Gabriele
La tua donna
1954
as Sandro Ademari
Wolves in the Abyss
1959
as Comandante
From Night to Dawn
1992
as Vergiotti
La famiglia Brambilla in vacanza
1941
as Marco Sassoli
La carne e l'anima
1945
as Andrea
Shamed
1947
as Rocco
Four of the Thundering Jet
1955
as Maggiore Montanari
The Voracious Ones
1973
as Olmi
Un bel dì vedremo
1996
as Emilio Venditti
Nights of the Teddy Boys
1959
as Constantino's Father
Christmas at Camp 119
1947
as Nane, il veneziano
The Year Long Road
1958
as Chiacchiera (Naklapalo)
Le due tigri
1941
as Tremal-Naik
A Day in the Life
1946
as Luigi Monotti
Fatalità
1947
as Vincenzo Masi
La Bohème
1988
as The Old Pretender / Featuring
Cinecittà, de Mussolini à la Dolce Vita
2021
as Self (archive footage)
Dora Nelson
1939
as Enrico
The Mysterious Mr. Van Eyck
1966
as Friend of Charles
Fugitive in Trieste
1952
as Fred Nolan
Altura
1949
as Stanis Archena
Idoli controluce
1965
as Ugo Sanfelice
I pirati della Malesia
1941
as Tremal-Naik
Harlem
1943
as Tommaso Rossi
Disperato addio
1955
as dottor Andrea Pitti
Il segreto delle tre punte
1952
as Massimo Dal Colle
Cavalcata selvaggia
1960
as Lorenzo
The Head of a Tyrant
1959
as Holofernes
L'Amore Dopo
1993
as Ing. Staino
La coppia
1969
as Guido
Land der Sehnsucht
1950
Un reietto delle isole
1980
as Tom Lingard
L'Ultimo Aereo per Venezia
1977
as Marcello Masini
Duel Without Honor
1950
as Carlo
Der Kardinal - Der Preis der Liebe
2000
as Donato
La trovatella di Pompei
1957
as Guglielmo Curti
Mafia alla sbarra
1963
About Massimo Girotti
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… With 112 credits spanning from 1939 to 2021, Massimo Girotti has appeared in 104 films and 8 TV shows.
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Most Popular Massimo Girotti Movies
- Last Tango in Paris (1972) — as Marcel
- Passion of Love (1981) — as Colonel
- Mr. Klein (1976) — as Charles, Florence's husband
- The French Revolution (1989) — as Envoyé du Pape
- Theorem (1968) — as Paolo, the Father
Where to Watch Massimo Girotti Films
Most Massimo Girotti movies and series are available to stream on Bowood.TV in full HD, completely free and without signup. Browse the complete filmography above to jump directly to any title. For more films and the latest web series featuring Massimo Girotti, check our movies catalogue and browse page.