Luigi Pistilli

Luigi Pistilli (19 July 192921 April 1996) was an Italian actor of stage, screen, and television.

At one time Pistilli was one of Italy's most respected actors of stage, screen, and television. In theater, he was considered one of the country's finest interpreters of Bertolt Brecht's plays in The Threepenny Opera and St Joan of the Stockyards. and in For a Few Dollars More (1965) as the cunning second-in-command Groggy (his first credited film role). He played the murderous Albert in the Mario Bava giallo Twitch of the Death Nerve (A Bay of Blood) in 1971. He had a regular role on the popular Italian television Mafia drama La piovra (The Octopus). He also appeared as the main villain in Death Rides a Horse (1967).

After a role in the 1970 Charles Bronson thriller Cold Sweat, in 1972 he appeared in two giallo films Iguana With the Tongue of Fire and Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (playing an alcoholic), and appeared as an exorcising priest in the 1974 cult horror film The Eerie Midnight Horror Show (aka The Sexorcist).

Death Pistilli committed suicide in his home in Milan just before he was scheduled to appear in the final performance of Terence Rattigan's Tosca on 21 April 1996.

Selected filmography

Walter e i suoi cugini (1961) – Man discussing with Tavolini (uncredited) For a Few Dollars More (1965) – Groggy (Indio's Gang) One Hundred Thousand Dollars for Lassiter (1966) – Danny Texas, Adios (1966) – Hernandez The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) – Father Pablo Ramírez We Still Kill the Old Way (1967) – Arturo Manno Death Rides a Horse (1967) – Walcott La lunga sfida (1967) – Paynes The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968) – Philip (starring Carroll Baker) Bandits in Rome (1969) – Colangeli The Great Silence (1968) – Henry Pollicut The Libertine (1968) – Otto Frank, aka Mr. X The Protagonists (1968) – Tassoni The Bandit (1969) The Lady of Monza (1969) – Count Fuentes Machine Gun McCain (1969) – Duke Mazzanga Eagles Over London (1969) – Major Krueger Night of the Serpent (1969) – Lieutenant 'The Snake' Hernandez Dead of Summer (1970) – Doctor Volterra Cold Sweat (1970) – Fausto Gelardi (starring Charles Bronson) Veruschka – poesia di una donna (1971) – Luigi the manager Twitch of the Death Nerve (1971) aka A Bay of Blood – Albert The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1971) – Inspector Stavros The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (1971) – Detective John Norton Summer Affair (1971) – Lo Versi Caliber 9 (1972) – Mercuri Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972) – Oliviero A White Dress for Marialé (1972) – Paolo Tragic Ceremony at Villa Alexander (1972) – Lord Alexander Il gatto di Brooklyn aspirante detective (1973) – Tony Mangialafoglia The Black Hand (The Birth of the Mafia) (1973) – Don Nunzio Pantaleo Number One (1973) – Carabinieri commander One Way (1973) – Javier Silence the Witness (1974) – Inspector De Luca The Eerie Midnight Horror Show (1974) aka The Sexorcist – Father Xeno The Suspects (1974) – Marcello Angiotti The Killers Are Our Guests (1974) – Commissario Di Stefano Cagliostro (1975) – Cardinal de Rohan Due Magnum .38 per una città di carogne (1975) – Commissario Perri Sins Without Intentions (1975) – Stefania's Stepfather (1976) – Commissario La principessa nuda (1976) – Marco Illustrious Corpses (1976) – Cusan Confessions of a Frustrated Housewife (1976) – Doctor Carlo Antonio Gramsci: The Days of Prison (1977) – Gennaro Gramsci Mamma Ebe (1985) – Roberto Lavagnino Una casa in bilico (1986) Mal d'Africa (1990) L'amante senza volto (1993) – Athos Magnani