Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni was born on
September 28, 1924 in Fontana, Liri, Italy. Mastroianni grew up in Turin and
Rome. He was the son of Ida (née Irolle) and Ottone Mastroianni, who ran a
carpentry shop, and the nephew of the Italian sculptor Umberto Mastroianni
[1910–1998]. During World War II, after the division into Axis and Allied
Italy, he was interned in a loosely guarded German prison camp, from which he
escaped to hide in Venice.
His brother Ruggero Mastroianni [1929–1996] was a highly
regarded film editor who not only edited a number of his brother's films, but
appeared alongside Marcello in Scipione detto anche l'Africano, a spoof of the
once popular peplum/sword and sandal film genre released in 1971.
Mastroianni made his onscreen debut as an uncredited
extra in “Marionette” (1939) when he was fourteen, and his first big role was
in “Atto d'accusa” (1951). Within a decade he became a major international
celebrity, starring in “Big Deal on Madonna Street” (1958); and in Federico
Fellini's “La Dolce Vita” opposite Anita Ekberg in 1960. He followed “La Dolce
Vita” with another signature role in Fellini's “8½” (1963).
Other prominent films include “La Notte” (1961), “Divorce,
Italian Style” (1961), “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” (1963), “Marriage
Italian-Style” (1964), and Robert Altman's “Ready to Wear” (1994); Mario
Monicelli's “Casanova 70” (1965); Fellini's “City of Women” (1980) and “Ginger
and Fred” (1986); Marco Bellocchio's Henry IV (1984), and Agnès Varda's “One
Hundred and One Nights” (1995).
He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor
three times: for “Divorce Italian Style”, “A Special Day” and “Dark Eyes”.
Mastroianni appeared in only one Euro-western as General
George Armstrong Custer in 1973’s “Don’t Shoot the White Woman” a modern day
farce taking place in downtown Paris with 19th century character such as
Buffalo Bill and Sitting Bull.
Marcello died from pancreatic cancer on December 19, 1996
in Paris, France. He was 72.
Today we remember one of the great actors of the Italian
cinema Marcello Mastroianni on what would have been his 90th birthday.
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