Amedeo Nazzari
| Amedeo Nazzari | |
|---|---|
 Amedeo Nazzari (left) and Edy Vessel in 1959 | |
| Born | Amedeo Carlo Leone Buffa (1907-12-10)10 December 1907 Cagliari, Italy |
| Died | 5 November 1979(1979-11-05) (aged 71) Rome, Italy |
| Years active | 1936–76 |
| Spouse(s) | Irene Genna (1957–79; his death) (1931-1986) |
Amedeo Nazzari (10 December 1907 in Cagliari – 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.
Contents
1 Early career
2 Stardom
3 Later career
4 Awards
5 Selected filmography
6 References
7 Bibliography
8 External links
Early career
Amedeo Nazzari was born as Amedeo Carlo Leone Buffa in Cagliari, Sardinia in 1907 and he later adopted as his professional name the name of his maternal grandfather, Amedeo Nazzari, a person who had been the President of the Court of Appeal of Vicenza in Venetia 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.[1] 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.[2] He was rejected after screen tests by Italian professionals, who found him too tall, thin and thought he had a too gloomy expression.[3]
Nazzari made his debut in Ginevra degli Almieri (1935), following a recommendation from Elsa Merlini.[4] 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.[5] 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".[6]
Stardom
Despite declining to join the party Nazzari, along with a handful of other actor such as Fosco Giachetti, was considered the model of a Male Hero. 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).[7] During the era he appeared opposite most 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
Nazzari in the 1950 film Il Brigante Musolino
Star of Italian cinema during the 40's and 50's. He made several melodramas with Raffaello Matarazzo, such as Catene in 1949. Nazzari acts himself in Federico Fellini's Nights of Cabiria.
Awards
David di Donatello Special David, For a life dedicated to cinema with passionate professionality and extraordinary success.
Venice Film Festival Best Actor in the Year of Count Volpi's Concession for Caravaggio, il pittore maledetto, 1941
Nastro d'Argento Best Actor for Il bandito, 1947
Selected filmography
Cavalry (1936) as Umberto Solaro
Ginevra degli Almieri (1936) as Antonio Rondinelli
La fossa degli angeli (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
Fuochi d'artificio (1938) as Gerardo di Jersay
The House of Shame (1938) as Giulio
La grande luce (1939) as Rocco Moretti
Unjustified Absence (1939) as Il dottore Carlo Cristiani
Cose dell'altro mondo (1939) as Jack Morison / L'ispettore generale Garner
La notte delle beffe (1939) as Capatosta
È sbarcato un marinaio (1940) as Gianni / Hans
Centomila dollari (1940) as Woods
Oltre l'amore (1940) as Pietro Mirilli
Dopo divorzieremo (1940) as Phil Gilder
Scarpe grosse (1940) as Stefano Di Marco
Yó soy mi rival (1940) as Pietro Lanfranchi
L'uomo del romanzo (1940) as Pietro Lanfranchi
Caravaggio (1941) as Michelangelo Merisi, il "Caravaggio"
I mariti (1941) as Fabio Regoli
Scampolo (1941) as Tito Sacchi
Il cavaliere senza nome (1941) as Bernardino Visconti
Villa da vendere (1941) as Franco Gádori
L'ultimo ballo (1941) as Il professore Stefano Boronkay
Sancta Maria (1942) as Paolo Wronski
The Jester's Supper (1942) as Neri Chiaramontesi
Bengasi (1942) as Filippo Colleoni
Sleeping Beauty (1942) as Salvatore detto 'Il Nero della solfara'
Fedora (1942) as Loris Ipanov / Ivan Petrovic
La bisbetica domata (1942) as Petruccio
Story of a Poor Young Man (1942) as Massimo Doriot
Giorni felici (1942) as Michele
Quelli della montagna (1943) as Il tenente Andrea Fontana
Harlem (1943) as Amedeo Rossi
Apparizione (1943) as Amedeo Nazzari
Grazia (1963)
La donna della montagna (1944) as Rodolfo Morigi
The Ten Commandments (1945) (segment "Non desiderare la donna d'altri")
Un giorno nella vita (1946) as Captain De Palma
Il bandito (1946) as Ernesto
Malacarne (1946) as Zù Bastiano
Il cavaliere del sogno (1947) as Gaetano Donizetti
When the Angels Sleep (1947) as Blin
Fatalità (1947) as Renato Salesi
The Captain's Daughter (1947) as Pugaciov, il tsar Piotr III°
Unexpected Conflict (1948) as Damian, the butler
Legge di sangue (1948)
Don Juan de Serrallonga (1949) as Don Juan de Serrallonga
Romanticismo (1949) as Vitaliano Lamberti
L'Invasore (1949) as Il conte Carlo di Valfreda
The Wolf of the Sila (1949) as Rocco Barra
Marmolada (1950)
Torment (1950) as Carlo Guarnieri
Chains (1950) as Guglielmo Aniello
Il vedovo allegro (1950) as Il professore De Carlo
Alina (1950) as Giovanni
Barrier to the North (1950) as Major Mauri
Donne e briganti (1950) as Michele Pezza detto 'Fra Diavolo'
Il Brigante Musolino (1950) as Beppe Musolino
Brief Rapture (1951) as Francesco Leverrier, ispettore di polizia
Double Cross (1951) as Pietro Vanzetti
Last Meeting (1951) as Piero Castelli
Nobody's Children (1951) as Guido Canali
Volver a la vida (1951)
Amori e veleni (1952) as Franco Santinelli
We Are All Murderers (1952) as Docteur Detouche (version italienne)
Sensualità (1952) as Riccardo Sartori
Processo alla città (1952) as Prosecutor Antonio Spicacci
The Bandit of Tacca Del Lupo (1952) as Capt. Giordani
Altri tempi (1952) as Andrea Fabbri (segment "La morsa")
The Flame (1952) as Colonel Felt
Who is Without Sin (1952) as Stefano Brunot
Il mondo le condanna (1953) as Paolo Martelli
Un marito per Anna Zaccheo (1953) as Il dottor Illuminato
I Always Loved You (1953) as Massimo
Pietà per chi cade (1954) as Carlo Savelli
Torna! (1954) - Roberto Varesi
Les Révoltés de Lomanach (1954) as Jacques Barnaud
Appassionatamente (1954) as Andrea Morandi
Proibito (1954) as Costantino Corraine
The White Angel (1955) as L'ingegnere Guido Carani
L'ultimo amante (1955) as Cesare Monti
The Intruder (1956) as Carlo Conti
Le notti di Cabiria (1957) as Alberto Lazzari
La puerta abierta (1957) as Michel de Caroli
Anna di Brooklyn (1958) as Ciccone
Il cielo brucia (1958) as Carlo Casati
Melancholic Autumn (1958) as Andrea, capitano del mercantile
La Maja desnuda (1958) as Prime Minister Manuel Godoy
Policarpo (1959) as The Carabiniere (uncredited)
Il mondo dei miracoli (1959) as Il presentatore alla conferenza stampa
Labyrinth (1959) as Professor De Lattre
Carmen la de Ronda (1959) as Coronel
Il raccomandato di ferro (1959) as The State Secretary
Carthage in Flames (1959)
La contessa azzurra (1960) as Salvatore Acierno
Journey Beneath the Desert (1961) as Tamal
Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile (1961) as Amenophis IV
I due nemici (1961) as Maj. Fornari
The Corsican Brothers (1961) as Orlandi
Finden Sie, daß Constanze sich richtig verhält? (1962)
Odio mortale (1962) as Ruiz / André Leboeuf
La leggenda di Fra Diavolo (1962) as General Hugo
Street of Temptation (1962) as Herr im seidenen Anzug
The Shortest Day (1963) as Soldato strabico col pallottoliere
Frenesia dell'estate (1964) as Count Marcello della Pietra
Donde tú estés (1964) as Max Branzeri
Il Gaucho (1964) as Marucchelli
Le monachine (1965) as Livio Bertana
Delitto d'amore (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 imparatur Traian
Le clan des siciliens (1969) as Tony Nicosia
The Valachi Papers (1972) as Gaetano Reina
A Matter of Time (1976) as Tewfik
Derrick (season 3, episode 14: "Der Mann aus Portofino"; 1976) as Dr. Pinaldi
Melodrammore (1977) as Himself (final film role)
References
^ Gundle p.194
^ Gundle p.186
^ Gundle p.186
^ Gundle p.191
^ Gundle p.184
^ Gundle p.185
^ Gundle p.191
Bibliography
Amedeo Nazzari written by Piero Pruzzo and Enrico Lancia. Collana "Le stelle filanti", Gremese Editore, Roma, 1983.
Amedeo Nazzari. Il divo,l'uomo, l'attore by Simone Casavecchia, with an interview to Evelina Nazzari, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Roma, 2007) in the 100 Anniversary of the birth of the actor (1907/2007). Sito ufficiale del C.S.C.
- Amedeo Buffa in arte Nazzari written by Maria Evelina Buffa. Collana "Cinema italiano", Edizioni Sabinae, Roma, 2008.
- Gundle, Stephen. Mussolini's Dream Factory: Film Stardom in Fascist Italy. Berghahn Books, 2013.
External links
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Amedeo Nazzari. |
Amedeo Nazzari on IMDb
Amedeo Nazzari at Find a Grave
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