Caterino Bertaglia was born on February 18, 1930, Corbola, Rovigo, Italy. We know him by his stage name of Rik Battaglia and he would go on to apppear in over 100 films from the 1955 to 1999. He never met his father and seldom saw his mother. He was raised by his grandmother. Rik went to sea at the age of 17 and worked on a freighter. He was discovered in a bar and signed to his first film in 1955's “Del la donna” opposite Sophia Loren. He then took two years of drama classes. He then appeared in a number of costume and sword and sandal films. He became a regular in the Karl May films but greatly disliked by the German fans when his character was responsible for the death of Winnetou in “Winnetou III” (aka “The Desperado Trail”). Rik then became an outstanding villain when the Spaghetti western genre took hold of the Italian film industry. Some of his more famous roles were “Old Shatterhand” (1963), “Black Jack” (1968), “Duck You Sucker” (1971), “White Fang” (1973) “Challenge to White Fang” (1974), “The Genius” (1975) and “A Man Called Blade” (1977). Rik retired from films in 1999. Today we celebrate Rik Battaglia's 80th birthday.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Happy 80th Birthday Rik Battaglia
Caterino Bertaglia was born on February 18, 1930, Corbola, Rovigo, Italy. We know him by his stage name of Rik Battaglia and he would go on to apppear in over 100 films from the 1955 to 1999. He never met his father and seldom saw his mother. He was raised by his grandmother. Rik went to sea at the age of 17 and worked on a freighter. He was discovered in a bar and signed to his first film in 1955's “Del la donna” opposite Sophia Loren. He then took two years of drama classes. He then appeared in a number of costume and sword and sandal films. He became a regular in the Karl May films but greatly disliked by the German fans when his character was responsible for the death of Winnetou in “Winnetou III” (aka “The Desperado Trail”). Rik then became an outstanding villain when the Spaghetti western genre took hold of the Italian film industry. Some of his more famous roles were “Old Shatterhand” (1963), “Black Jack” (1968), “Duck You Sucker” (1971), “White Fang” (1973) “Challenge to White Fang” (1974), “The Genius” (1975) and “A Man Called Blade” (1977). Rik retired from films in 1999. Today we celebrate Rik Battaglia's 80th birthday.
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My mother (June Thorburn) was in a movie with Rik... I thought he was the most handsome man I had ever seen. ;-))
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