Amedeo Nazzari

Amedeo Nazzari (10 December 1907 – 5 November 1979) was an Italian actor. Nazzari was one of the leading figures of Italian classic cinema, often considered a local variant of the Australian–American star Errol Flynn. Although he emerged as a star during the Fascist era, Nazzari's popularity continued well into the post-war years.

Early career Amedeo Nazzari was born as Amedeo Carlo Leone Buffa in Cagliari, Sardinia, Kingdom of Italy, in 1907 and he later adopted as his professional name the name of his maternal grandfather, Amedeo Nazzari, a magistrate who had been the president of the Court of Appeal of Vicenza in Veneto and later took the same position in Cagliari. Although Amedeo eventually moved to Rome, he always retained a slight trace of his native Sardinian accent. While Nazzari was keen on gaining film contracts much of his early experience was in the theatre. He entered a contest organised by Twentieth Century Fox to find an Italian actor to fill the boots of the recently deceased screen star Rudolph Valentino, but lost out to Alberto Rabagliati. He was rejected after screen tests by Italian professionals, who found him too tall, thin and thought he had a too gloomy expression.

Nazzari made his debut in Ginevra degli Almieri (1935), following a recommendation from Elsa Merlini. His first read role came with the 1936 film Cavalry, and he followed it up with The Castiglioni Brothers (1937). His breakthrough came with the 1938 film Luciano Serra, Pilot (1938) where he played a First World War veteran who returns to fight for Italy during the Abyssinian War. Nazzari was transformed into a matinee idol, the most bankable star of Italian cinema. Following the film, Nazzari was invited to join the Fascist Party by Benito Mussolini, but declined saying "Thank You Duce! I would prefer not to concern myself with politics, occupied as I am with more pressing artistic commitments".

Stardom

Despite declining to join the Fascist party, Nazzari, along with a handful of other actors such as Fosco Giachetti, was considered one of exemplary male heroes. Most of his film roles from this point present him as a masculine (often military) figure. His emergence as a star coincided with a major drive by the Italian government to rebuild the country's film industry which had declined since its heyday in the silent era.

This policy involved large-scale government funding of films and the construction of the massive Cinecittà studio complex in Rome. The number of films produced each year climbed rapidly, with Nazzari a particularly prolific actor (making six films in 1939 and eight in 1941). During the era he worked with some of the leading Italian actresses including Alida Valli, Lilia Silvi, Luisa Ferida, Mariella Lotti, Assia Noris, Vera Carmi and Clara Calamai, often more than once.

Nazzari was almost always cast as a straightforward hero, and he closely protected his public persona to avoid any negative roles. An exception was the historical comedy-drama film The Jester's Supper (1942) in which he plays a loutish figure. Nazzari made four films with Alida Valli, including Unjustified Absence (1939).

Following Italy's entry into the Second World War in 1940, he combined romances and comedies, with occasional more propagandistic productions. Amongst the more political was Bengasi (1942), an anti-British war film set in Libya. Nazzari portrays an Italian patriot who masquerades as a collaborator with the British occupiers of Bengazi in order to steal their battle plans. It was the only time he featured alongside the other great male star of the era, Fosco Giachetti.

Later career

Star of Italian cinema during the 1940s and 1950s. He made several melodramas with Raffaello Matarazzo, such as Catene in 1949. Nazzari played Alberto Lazzari in Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria. He died in 1979 in Rome.

Awards David di Donatello Special David, for a life dedicated to cinema with passionate professionalism and extraordinary success. Venice Film Festival Best Actor in the Year of Count Volpi's Concession for , 1941 Nastro d'Argento Best Actor for Il bandito, 1947

Selected filmography

Cavalry (1936) as Umberto Solaro Ginevra degli Almieri (1936) as Antonio Rondinelli Tomb of the Angels (1937) as Pietro The Castiglioni Brothers (1937) as Fulvio Castiglioni The Count of Brechard (1938) as Francesco di Bréchard Luciano Serra, Pilot (1938) as Luciano Serra (1938) as Gerardo di Jersay The House of Shame (1938) as Giulio (1939) as Rocco Moretti Unjustified Absence (1939) as Doctor Carlo Cristiani (1939) as Jack Morison / Inspector General Garner The Night of Tricks (1939) as Capatosta (1940) as Gianni / Hans One Hundred Thousand Dollars (1940) as Woods Beyond Love (1940) as Pietro Mirilli Then We'll Get a Divorce (1940) as Phil Gilder Big Shoes (1940) as Stefano Di Marco (1940) as Pietro Lanfranchi (1940) as Pietro Lanfranchi Caravaggio (1941) as Michelangelo Merisi, the "Caravaggio" (1941) as Fabio Regoli Scampolo (1941) as Tito Sacchi (1941) as Bernardino Visconti (1941) as Franco Gádori The Last Dance (1941) as Professor Stefano Boronkay (1942) as Paolo Wronski The Jester's Supper (1942) as Neri Chiaramontesi Bengasi (1942) as Filippo Colleoni Sleeping Beauty (1942) as Salvatore "Sulfur black" Fedora (1942) as Loris Ipanov / Ivan Petrovic The Taming of the Shrew (1942) as Petruccio (1942) as Massimo Doriot Happy Days (1942) as Michele Men of the Mountain (1943) as Lieutenant Andrea Fontana Harlem (1943) as Amedeo Rossi Apparition (1943) as Amedeo Nazzari (1963) (1944) as Rodolfo Morigi The Ten Commandments (1945) (segment —Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife) Un giorno nella vita (1946) as Captain De Palma The Bandit (1946) as Ernesto Malacarne (1946) as Zù Bastiano (1947) as Gaetano Donizetti When the Angels Sleep (1947) as Blin (1947) as Renato Salesi The Captain's Daughter (1947) as Pugaciov, Tsar Piotr III Unexpected Conflict (1948) as Damian, the butler (1948) (1949) as Don Juan de Serrallonga (1949) as Vitaliano Lamberti (1949) as Count Carlo di Valfreda The Wolf of the Sila (1949) as Rocco Barra Marmolada (1950) Torment (1950) as Carlo Guarnieri Chains (1950) as Guglielmo Aniello The Merry Widower (1950) as Professor De Carlo Alina (1950) as Giovanni Barrier to the North (1950) as Major Mauri Women and Brigands (1950) as Michele Pezza (Brother Devil) Il Brigante Musolino (1950) as Beppe Musolino (a character inspired by Italian brigand Giuseppe Musolino) Brief Rapture (1951) as Francesco Leverrier, Police Inspector Double Cross (1951) as Pietro Vanzetti Last Meeting (1951) as Piero Castelli Nobody's Children (1951) as Guido Canali Volver a la vida (1951) (1952) as Franco Santinelli We Are All Murderers (1952) as Doctor Detouche (Italian version) Barefoot Savage (1952) as Riccardo Sartori The City Stands Trial (1952) as Prosecutor Antonio Spicacci The Bandit of Tacca Del Lupo (1952) as Capt. Giordani In Olden Days (1952) as Andrea Fabbri (segment ) The Flame (1952) as Colonel Felt Who is Without Sin (1952) as Stefano Brunot The World Condemns Them (1953) as Paolo Martelli A Husband for Anna (1953) as Doctor Illuminato I Always Loved You (1953) as Massimo Pietà per chi cade (1954) as Carlo Savelli Torna! (1954) - Roberto Varesi (1954) as Jacques Barnaud Appassionatamente (1954) as Andrea Morandi Proibito (1954) as Costantino Corraine The White Angel (1955) as Engineer Guido Carani L'ultimo amante (1955) as Cesare Monti The Intruder (1956) as Carlo Conti Nights of Cabiria (1957) as Alberto Lazzari (1957) as Michel de Caroli Anna of Brooklyn (1958) as Ciccone The Sky Burns (1958) as Carlo Casati Melancholic Autumn (1958) as Andrea, merchant captain The Naked Maja (1958) as Prime Minister Manuel Godoy Policarpo (1959) as The Carabiniere (uncredited) World of Miracles (1959) as the presenter at the press conference Labyrinth (1959) as Professor De Lattre (1959) as Coronel Il raccomandato di ferro (1959) as the State Secretary Carthage in Flames (1959) (1960) as Salvatore Acierno Journey Beneath the Desert (1961) as Tamal Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile (1961) as Amenophis IV The Best of Enemies (1961) as Maj. Fornari The Corsican Brothers (1961) as Orlandi The Constant Wife (1962) (1962) as Ruiz / André Leboeuf (1962) as General Hugo Street of Temptation (1962) as Gentleman in a silk suit The Shortest Day (1963) as Squinting soldier with abacus Shivers in Summer (1964) as Count Marcello della Pietra (1964) as Max Branzeri Il Gaucho (1964) as Marucchelli (1965) as Livio Bertana (1966) as François Derroux The Poppy Is Also a Flower (1966) as Captain Di Nonno Spy Today, Die Tomorrow (1967) as Bardo Baretti The Column (1968) as Emperor Trajan The Sicilian Clan (1969) as Tony Nicosia The Valachi Papers (1972) as Gaetano Reina A Matter of Time (1976) as Tewfik Origins of the Mafia as Senator Derrick (season 3, episode 14: ; 1976) as Dr. Pinaldi (1977) as Himself