Gabriele Ferzetti, actor, Died at 90

  Actor

Gabriele Ferzetti was born Pasquale Ferzetti on March 17, 1925, and died on December 2, 2015.

He was an Italian actor. He has more than 160 credits to his name across film, television and stage.

Gabriele career was at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s.

A prominent figure in Italian cinema frin the 1950s on, Gabriele first leading role came in 1950 in the film Lo Zappatore.

He portrayed Puccini twice in 1953 and 1954 in the films Puccini and Casa Ricordi respectively.

Gabriele made his international breakthrough in 1960 in his most acclaimed role as an oversexed, restless playboy in Michelangelo Antonioni’s controversial L’Avventura.

After a series of romantic performances, Gabriele acquired a reputation in Italy as an elegant, debonair and a somewhat aristocratic looking leading man.

In 1966, Gabriele starred as Lot in John Huston’s biblical epic, The Bible: In the Beginning…. In 1968, he played railroad baron Morton in Sergio Leone’s celebrated Once Upon a Time in the West.

A year later, Gabriele appeared in the James Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as Marc Ange Draco, perhaps his best known role internationally, though his voice was dubbed by British actor David de Keyser.

Gabriele is perhaps best known to non-mainstream audiences for his role as the psychiatrist, Hans, in Liliana Cavani’s arthouse classic The Night Porter (1974).

In the 1970s, he appeared in a significant number of crime films, often as an inspector.

Gabriele also appeared in Julia and Julia, opposite Laurence Olivier in Inchon (1982) and the cult film First Action Hero.

More recently, Gabriele played the role of Nono in the TV series Une famille formidable and appeared in Luca Guadagnino’s 2009 film I Am Love.

Gabriele Ferzetti passed away on December 2, 2015, aged 90.