VITTORIO GASSMAN

Remembering the actor VITTORIO GASSMAN born on this day in 1922.

He is considered one of the greatest Italian actors, whose career includes both important productions as well as dozens of divertissements.

While still very young, he moved to Rome, where he studied at the Silvio D'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Gassman's debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemi's La Nemica (theatre).

He then moved to Rome and acted at the Teatro Eliseo joining Tino Carraro and Ernesto Calindri in a team that remained famous for some time; with them he acted in a range of plays from bourgeois comedy to sophisticated intellectual theatre.

In 1946, he made his film debut in "PRELUDIO D'AMORE", while only one year later he appeared in five films.

In 1948 he played in "BITTER RICE".

He played Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' Un tram che si chiama desiderio "A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE", as well as in "As You Like It" by Shakespeare and Oreste (by Vittorio Alfieri).

With Luigi Squarzina in 1952 he co-founded and co-directed the Teatro d'Arte Italiano, producing the first complete version of "Hamlet" in Italy, followed by rare works such as Seneca's Thyestes and Aeschylus's The Persians.

In 1956 Gassman played the title role in a production of "Othello".

Gassman's debut in the commedia all'italiana genre was rather accidental, in Mario Monicelli's BIG DEAL ON MADONNA STREET, (1958).

Famous movies featuring Gassman include: THE EASY LIFE (1962), THE GREAT WAR (1962), OPIATE 67 (1963), FOR LOVE AND GOLD or THE INCREDIBLE ARMY OF BRANCALEONE (1966), SCENE OF A WOMAN (1974) and WE ALL LOVED EACH OTHER SO MUCH (1974).

In cinema, he worked frequently both in Italy and abroad.

He met and fell in love with American actress Shelley Winters while she was touring Europe with fiancé Farley Granger.

When Winters was forced to return to Hollywood to fulfill contractual obligations, he followed her there and married her.

With his natural charisma and his fluency in English he scored a number of roles in Hollywood, including "RHAPSODY" with Elizabeth Taylor and THE GLASS WALL before returning to Italy and the theatre.

On 29 June 2000, Gassman died of a heart attack in his sleep at his home in Rome at the age of 77.