Terence Hill: From Trinity to Don Matteo

Caffeina

February 15, 2018

He has always been remembered for his western adventures with Bud Spencer. Famous and with a past full of films and collaborations, today the face of Terence Hill is that of Don Matteo, the Rai TV series on air since 2000. At the Mario Girotti registry office, Terence Hill, 1.82 cm high for 77 kilos weight, born in Venice in 1939, but soon moved to Germany, returning to Italy only at the end of the war. He made his film debut at the age of 12 (a small part in a film by Dino Risi, Vacation with the gangster). The real launch of his career as an actor was, however, the participation (though not the main protagonist) in the famous film by Luchino Visconti, Il Gattopardo. Much of his success is linked to the many films shot with Carlo Pedersoli (better known as Bud Spencer). His success is linked above all to some titles like "neo-spaghetti western" such as the unforgettable "They Call Me Trinity" (from 1970), and the sequel "Trinity is STILL My Name", paired with Bud Spencer. At the time the trend was to devalue Italian artists in favor of foreign ones coming in particular from America and for this reason he changed his name.

He chooses a name inspired by an author of Latin history he was reading at the time, Terenzio, and the surname from his wife: Mario Girotti becomes Terence Hill for everyone. In his career, as well as being an actor, he is also a director, screenwriter, television producer and has had experiences as an interpreter of photo novels. The film “God Forgives ... I Don’t!” allowed Girotti to meet two people who would definitely change his life: one of them is the one who would become his wife, Lori Hill, born Lori Zwicklbauer, an American girl of German origin; Terence and Lori were married in 1967 and had two children, Jess and Ross, a foster child, who died at 16 in a car accident in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, on January 30th of that year in 1990.

In the crash of the car driven by the young man who lost his life also Ross's friend who was with him and to them, with the caption "Love is eternal", the whole series 'Lucky Luke' was dedicated that later underwent drastic changes. After the tragedy, Terence Hill withdrew from the scene for ten years until '' Don Matteo '', in which Girotti plays a priest with a remarkable investigative talent that helps the police solve the news stories. Another Rai television series in which the actor appears as the main protagonist is ''A Step from Heaven''.