Luca Barbareschi

Luca Giorgio Barbareschi (born 28 July 28 1956) is an Italian actor, filmmaker, businessman, and politician. He is known for playing Mark Tomaso in the 1980 Italian horror film Cannibal Holocaust. He also represented Sardinia in the Italian Chamber of Deputies between 2008 and 2014.

Early life and education Barbareschi was born on 28 July 1956 in Montevideo, Uruguay, to Francesco Saverio, an engineer and former World War II partisan from Milan, and Maria Antonietta Hirsch, an economist of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His parents divorced when he was six and he moved to Milan, where he attended the Leo XIII Institute during the 1960s. In 2008, he alleged that a Jesuit priest at the Institute had sexually abused him between the ages of eight and thirteen.

Career

Theater and film Barbareschi studied acting with Alessandro Fersen and began his professional career in 1970 as an assistant director to Virginio Puecher at the Teatro di Verona. He spent a year as an assistant director at the Lyric Opera of Chicago before moving to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City under Frank Corsaro. He later enrolled in the Actors Studio, where he studied for four years. While at the Actors Studio, Barbareschi was cast as cameraman Mark Tomaso in the film Cannibal Holocaust, directed by Ruggero Deodato. The film was controversial for its graphic violence and realistic murder scenes which were initially speculated to be genuine, although contrary to rumours Deodato and the film's producers were never charged with murder. Deodato himself has claimed that the actors who portrayed the murdered characters – including Barbareschi – were contracted to stay out of the public eye for a year after the film's release. The existence of these contracts was disputed by Carl Gabriel Yorke but confirmed by Francesca Ciardi, both of whom co-starred on the film with Barbareschi.

Politics

In 2008, Barbareschi was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies as a member of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party The People of Freedom. In 2010, he joined Gianfranco Fini's new party Future and Freedom with 32 other deputies and 10 senators. He left parliament in 2013.

Activism As a child sexual abuse survivor,

Controversies On 11 June 2012, during an interview for the program Le Iene, Barbareschi attacked journalist Filippo Roma and his cameraman, and stole Roma's cellphone. He attacked Roma again two months later in Filicudi. Barbareschi has defended director Roman Polanski, with whom he has worked several times as a producer, against his sexual abuse conviction, claiming the case against him is due to "political correctness".

Personal life

Marriages and relationships Barbareschi has been married twice. His first wife was Patrizia Fachini, with whom he has three daughters: Beatrice, Eleonora and Angelica. His second wife is Elena Monorchio, the daughter of former State Accountant General ; they married on June 20, 2015 and have two children: Maddalena (b. 2010) and Francesco Saverio (b. 2012). Barbareschi was previously in a seven-year-long relationship with actress Lucrezia Lante della Rovere.

Religion Barbareschi practices Judaism.

Television 1992 – Questo è amore 1992 – That's Amore 1997 – Trenta righe per un delitto 1998 – Cronaca nera 1999 – Jesus 2000 – Greed 2002 – Giorni da leone 2003 – Una vita in regalo 2004 – Rivoglio i miei figli 2005 – Nebbie e delitti 2005 – Les Rois maudits 2006 – Giorni da leone 2 2006 – La profezia dei templari 2007 – Nebbie e delitti 2 2009 – Nebbie e delitti 3 2012 – Nero Wolfe (producer) 2013 – Le Iene con Botte da Orbi 2015 – Pietro Mennea - La freccia del sud (fiction) 2022 – Il grande gioco (producer)

Theatre 2004 – Amadeus 2006 – Il Sogno del Principe di Salina, l'Ultimo Gattopardo