Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Gino Bardi

 

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Born Giuseppe Biago in Italy on June 12, 1907. He arrived in New York with his family as a child. He became the co-editor of the American Communist Party’s Italian-language weekly, L’Unitàdel Popolo. Bardi’s co-editor was Maria “Mary” Testa, the mother of Suze Rotolo, visual artist and author of the memoir, A Freewheelin’ Time: A Memoir of Greenwich Village in the Sixties (2008), who the Calandra Institute presented in November 2008. Bob Dylan’s song, “Ballad in Plain D,” references Testa in passing. In 1940, Biago ran for Congress as the American Labor Party’s candidate for a district representing Greenwich Village. Giuseppe obtained a degree in philosophy at Columbia College and returned to Italy to teach at the University of Florence. There he was drafted into the fascist army. He returned to the States, joined the Army in 1942, served, and wrote for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes. He was recruited by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), as were other Italian-American soldiers, to assist Italian partisans behind enemy lines.

After the war, he changed his name to Gino Bardi returned to Italy and worked in the Italian film industry, in particular with producer Dino De Laurentiis. He and director Luchino Visconti translated Arthur Miller’s play “The Crucible” into Italian. He also became a dubbing director.

Bardi died at the age of 71 in New York in May of 1978 and is buried in St. John’s Cemetery in Queens. His nephew, Basil Bascetta, is the Chief Administrative Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds at Queens College, the Calandra Institute’s parent college. Bardi’s unfinished memoir has been lost.

Gino Bardi appeared in only one Spaghetti western as Lucock, the Notary Public in 1966’s “3 pistole contro Cesare” (Death Walks in Laredo)

BARDI, Gino (Giuseppe Biago) [6/12/1907, Italy – 5/?/1978, New York, U.S.A.] – author, politician, film, voice actor.

Death Walks in Laredo – 1966 (Lycock, the Notary Public)