Italian Cinema in 100 Names

1. Federico Fellini

The women who both attracted and frightened him and an Italy dominated in his youth by Mussolini and Pope Pius XII - inspired the dreams that Fellini started recording in notebooks in the 1960s. Life and dreams were raw material for his films. His native Rimini and characters like Saraghina (the ...

2. Michelangelo Antonioni

Writer | Blow-Up

Together with Fellini, Bergman and Kurosawa, Michelangelo Antonioni is credited with defining the modern art film. And yet Antonioni's cinema is also recognized today for defying any easy categorization, with his films ultimately seeming to belong to their own distinctive genre. Indeed, the ...

3. Marcello Mastroianni

Actor | La dolce vita

Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy in 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette (1939), then started working for the Italian ...

4. Giulietta Masina

Actress | Le notti di Cabiria

Born in San Giorgio di Piano, Giulietta Masina spent part of her teenage years living with a widowed aunt in Rome, where she cultivated a passion for the theater and studied for a degree in Philosophy. She began her career on the radio with the program "Terzoglio" (1942), about the adventures of ...

5. Luchino Visconti

Writer | Il gattopardo

Born in his ancestral palazzo, situated in the same Milanese square as both the opera house La Scala and the Milan Cathedral, Luchino Visconti (1906 - 1976) was raised under the auspices of aristocratic privilege, theater and Catholicism. This triangulation of monuments would create an equally ...

6. Anna Magnani

Actress | Roma città aperta

Anna Magnani was born in Rome, Italy (not in Egypt, as some biographies claim), on March 7, 1908. She was the child of Marina Magnani and an unknown father often said to be from Alexandria, Egypt, but whom Anna herself claimed was from the Calabria region of Italy although she never knew his name. ...

7. Vittorio De Sica

Director | Ladri di biciclette

Vittorio De Sica grew up in Naples, and started out as an office clerk in order to raise money to support his poor family. He was increasingly drawn towards acting, and made his screen debut while still in his teens, joining a stage company in 1923. By the late 1920s he was a successful matinee ...

8. Pier Paolo Pasolini

Writer | Il Decameron

Pier Paolo Pasolini achieved fame and notoriety long before he entered the film industry. A published poet at 19, he had already written numerous novels and essays before his first screenplay in 1954. His first film Accattone (1961) was based on his own novel and its violent depiction of the life ...

9. Nino Rota

Composer | The Godfather

Born in Milan in 1911 into a family of musicians, Nino Rota was first a student of Orefice and Pizzetti. Then, still a child, he moved to Rome where he completed his studies at the Conservatory of Santa Cecilia in 1929 with Alfredo Casella. In the meantime, he had become an 'enfant prodige', famous...

10. Sophia Loren

Actress | La ciociara

Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on September 20, 1934. Her father Riccardo was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and her younger sister ...

11. Sergio Leone

Writer | Once Upon a Time in America

Sergio Leone was virtually born into the cinema - he was the son of Roberto Roberti (A.K.A. Vincenzo Leone), one of Italy's cinema pioneers, and actress Bice Valerian. Leone entered films in his late teens, working as an assistant director to both Italian directors and U.S. directors working in ...

12. Roberto Rossellini

Writer | Roma città aperta

The master filmmaker Roberto Rossellini, as one of the creators of neo-realism, is one of the most influential directors of all time. His neo-realist films influenced France's nouvelle vague movement in the 1950s and '60s that changed the face of international cinema. He also influenced American ...

13. Ennio Morricone

Composer | The Hateful Eight

A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first ...

14. Cesare Zavattini

Writer | Ladri di biciclette

Cesare Zavattini was born on September 20, 1902 in Luzzara, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), Umberto D. (1952) and It's Forever Springtime (1950). He was married to Olga Berni. He died on October 13, 1989 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

15. Bernardo Bertolucci

Writer | Il conformista

Bernardo Bertolucci, the Italian director whose films were known for their colorful visual style, was born in Parma, Italy. He attended Rome University and became famous as a poet. He served as assistant director for Pier Paolo Pasolini in the film Accattone (1961) and directed The Grim Reaper (...

16. Gian Maria Volontè

Actor | Per un pugno di dollari

Born in Milan in 1933, Gian Maria Volontè studied in Rome at the National Dramatic Arts Academy, where he obtained his degree in 1957. He began working in theatre and television, where he was soon noticed as one of the most promising actors of his generation. After several supporting appearances in...

17. Nanni Moretti

Producer | La stanza del figlio

Nanni Moretti was born on the 19th of August, 1953. He lives in Rome, where since he was a kid he devotes himself to his two passions: cinema and water-polo. In 1970 he also played in water-polo first division in Italy, and in the junior National team. In those years he was also very committed in ...

18. Marco Bellocchio

Writer | Il traditore

Marco Bellocchio is one of the most consistent and most adventurous of today's Italian directors-an achievement all the more remarkable given that he made his feature debut almost fifty years ago. Over those years, he has amassed a body of films that encompasses a large number of original ...

19. Alberto Sordi

Actor | Io e Caterina

One of Italy's most captivating and talented cinematic comedy stars, Italian veteran Alberto Sordi was known for satirizing his country's social mores in pungent black comedies, farcical tales and grim drama. He, along with peers Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi and Nino Manfredi, arguably represent ...

20. Ettore Scola

Writer | Una giornata particolare

Ettore Scola was born on May 10, 1931 in Trevico, Campania, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for A Special Day (1977), The Family (1987) and Passion of Love (1981). He was married to Gigliola. He died on January 19, 2016 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

21. Giuseppe Tornatore

Director | La migliore offerta

Giuseppe Tornatore was born on May 27, 1956 in Bagheria, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for The Best Offer (2013), Cinema Paradiso (1988) and The Legend of 1900 (1998). He is married to Roberta Pacetti.

22. Vittorio Gassman

Actor | Sleepers

Vittorio Gassman studied theatre in his youth and was quite a good basketball player. He debuted on stage in 1943 and soon felt home in all classical theatre works. Since 1946 he also worked at the movies and his first big role there was the criminal in Bitter Rice (1949). This fixed him to his ...

23. Marco Ferreri

Writer | Storie di ordinaria follia

Marco Ferreri was born on May 11, 1928 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981), L'udienza (1972) and El cochecito (1960). He was married to Jacqueline Ferreri. He died on May 9, 1997 in Paris, France.

24. Silvana Mangano

Actress | Dune

Silvana Mangano was born on April 21, 1930 in Rome, Italy and was raised in poverty during World War II. She trained as a dancer for seven years and supported herself as a model. In 1946, at age 16, she won the Miss Rome beauty pageant and through this, she obtained role in a Maria Della Costa film...

25. Nino Manfredi

Actor | Per grazia ricevuta

Nino Manfredi was born on March 22, 1921 in Castro dei Volsci, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor and writer, known for Between Miracles (1971), Bread and Chocolate (1974) and Café Express (1980). He was married to Erminia Ferrari Manfredi. He died on June 4, 2004 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

26. Paolo Taviani

Director | La notte di San Lorenzo

Paolo Taviani studied liberal arts at the University of Pisa, becoming interested in the cinema after seeing Roberto Rossellini's Paisan (1946). After writing and directing short films and plays with his brother Vittorio, he made his first feature in 1962. The brothers have continued to work ...

27. Claudia Cardinale

Actress | C'era una volta il West

Like many other female Italian film stars, Claudia Cardinale's entry into the business was by way of a beauty pageant. She was 17 years old and studying at the Centro Sperimentale in Rome when she entered a beauty contest, which resulted in her getting a succession of small film roles. Her earthy ...

28. Pietro Germi

Writer | Il ferroviere

Pietro Germi was born on September 14, 1914 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Railroad Man (1956), Divorce Italian Style (1961) and The Birds, the Bees and the Italians (1966). He was married to Olga D'Aiello and Anna Bancio. He died on December 5, 1974 in Rome, ...

29. Paolo Sorrentino

Writer | È stata la mano di Dio

Director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino was born in Naples in 1970, and and became an orphan when he lost both of his parents at the age of 16. At the age of 25, after studying for a few years at the Faculty of Economics and Business in University of Naples Federico II, he decided to work in the...

30. Elio Petri

Writer | Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto

Elio Petri was born on January 29, 1929 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), We Still Kill the Old Way (1967) and His Days Are Numbered (1962). He was married to Paola Pegoraro. He died on November 10, 1982 in Rome, Lazio,...

31. Giuseppe De Santis

Writer | Caccia tragica

Giuseppe De Santis was born on February 11, 1917 in Fondi, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Tragic Hunt (1947), Giorni d'amore (1954) and Bitter Rice (1949). He was married to Gordana Miletic. He died on May 16, 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

32. Monica Vitti

Actress | L'avventura

Monica Vitti was born on November 3, 1931 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was an actress and writer, known for L'Avventura (1960), Red Desert (1964) and L'Eclisse (1962). She was married to Roberto Russo. She died on February 2, 2022 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

33. Vittorio Storaro

Cinematographer | Apocalypse Now

Vittorio Storaro, the award-winning cinematographer who won Oscars for "Apocalypse Now (1979)", "Reds (1981)" and "The Last Emperor (1987)". He was born on June 24, 1940 in Rome, where his father was a projectionist at the Lux Film Studio. At the age of 11, he began studying photography at a ...

34. Toni Servillo

Actor | La grande bellezza

Actor and director Toni Servillo was born in Afragola in 1959. In 1977 Servillo founded the Teatro Studio in Caserta for whom he directed 'Propaganda' (1979), 'Norma' (1982), 'Billy il bugiardo' (1983) and 'Guernica' (1985), amongst others. In 1986 he collaborated with the Falso Movimento group, ...

35. Mario Monicelli

Writer | I compagni

Mario Monicelli was born on May 16, 1915 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for The Organizer (1963), Speriamo che sia femmina (1986) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). He was married to Chiara Rapaccini and Antonella Salerni. He died on November 29, 2010 in Rome, Lazio,...

36. Franco Zeffirelli

Director | Romeo and Juliet

Franco Zeffirelli is an Italian director and producer of operas, films and television. He was also a senator from 1994 until 2001 for the Italian center-right Forza Italia party. Some of his operatic designs and productions have become worldwide classics.

He was known for several of the movies he ...

37. Giuseppe Rotunno

Cinematographer | All That Jazz

Giuseppe 'Peppino' Rotunno entered the film industry as a still photographer at Cinecitta but lost his job due to his anti-fascist views. Conscripted and sent to Greece in 1942, he then served as a newsreel cameraman with the Italian army film unit. A year later, he was captured during the German ...

38. Carlo Ponti

Producer | Doctor Zhivago

Carlo Ponti was born on December 11, 1912 in Magenta, Lombardy, Italy. He was a producer and production manager, known for Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Road (1954) and Marriage Italian Style (1964). He was married to Sophia Loren and Giuliana Fiastri. He died on January 10, 2007 in Geneva, ...

39. Lina Wertmüller

Writer | Pasqualino Settebellezze

During the 1970s, Lina Wertmüller emblazoned her name into the pantheon of Italian cinema with a series of intensely polemical, deeply controversial and wonderfully entertaining films. Among the most politically outspoken and iconoclastic members of the second generation of postwar directors - the ...

40. Francesco Rosi

Writer | Cadaveri eccellenti

His father was a shipowner. After school, Rosi initially began studying law, which he soon dropped out to work as a broadcast journalist and book illustrator in Naples. From 1944 to 1945 he worked for "Radio Napoli". In the immediate post-war years, Rosi moved to Rome, where he came into contact ...

41. Dino Risi

Director | Il sorpasso

Dino Risi became a movie director by chance. In 1940 he met Alberto Lattuada at a friend's boutique. Lattuada told him they needed an assistant director for the movie Piccolo mondo antico (1941). Risi accepted just for fun, not for work. Later, he became a psychiatrist and wrote some articles for a...

42. Luigi Zampa

Writer | Processo alla città

Abandoning earlier studies in architecture and engineering, Luigi Zampa learned screenwriting and directing at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, between 1932 and 1937. He went on to make military training films for the Italian army during World War II, as well as collaborating on ...

43. Alida Valli

Actress | The Third Man

Enigmatic, dark-haired foreign import Alida Valli was dubbed "The Next Garbo" but didn't live up to postwar expectations despite her cool, patrician beauty, remote allure and significant talent. Born in Pola, Italy (now Croatia), on May 3, 1921, the daughter of a Tridentine journalist and professor...

44. Giancarlo Giannini

Actor | Quantum of Solace

Giancarlo Giannini is an Oscar-nominated Italian actor, director and multilingual dubber who made an international reputation for his leading roles in Italian films as well as for his mastery of a variety of languages and dialects.

He was born August 1, 1942, in La Spezia, Italy. For 10 years he ...

45. Matteo Garrone

Director | Dogman

Matteo Garrone was born in Rome in 1968. He is the son of a theatre critic, Nico Garrone, and a photographer. In 1996 he won the Sacher d'Oro, an award sponsored by Nanni Moretti, with the short film Silhouette (1996), that became one of the three episodes of his first feature film Land in Between ...

46. Carlo Di Palma

Cinematographer | Mighty Aphrodite

Carlo Di Palma was born on April 17, 1925 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Blow-Up (1966) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). He was married to Adriana Chiesa Di Palma. He died on July 9, 2004 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

47. Totò

Actor | Guardie e ladri

'Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno Porfirogenito Gagliardi De Curtis di Bisanzio' was a descendant of the 'Comneno di Bizanzio' and also one of the most popular Italian film stars in history. His genre was undoubtedly the comedy where he achieved world fame. From 1917 he was an actor...

48. Monica Bellucci

Actress | Malèna

Monica Anna Maria Bellucci was born on September 30, 1964 in the Italian village of Città di Castello, Umbria, the only child of Brunella Briganti and Pasquale Bellucci. She originally pursued a career in the legal profession. While attending the University of Perugia, she modeled on the side to ...

49. Lucia Bosè

Actress | La signora senza camelie

Lucia Bosè was born on January 28, 1931 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. She was an actress, known for The Lady Without Camelias (1953), Death of a Cyclist (1955) and Story of a Love Affair (1950). She was married to Luis Miguel Dominguín. She died on March 23, 2020 in Segovia, Segovia, Castilla y León, ...

50. Suso Cecchi D'Amico

Writer | Ladri di biciclette

Suso Cecchi D'Amico was born on July 21, 1914 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She was a writer and actress, known for Bicycle Thieves (1948), The Leopard (1963) and Rocco and His Brothers (1960). She was married to Fidele d'Amico. She died on July 31, 2010 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

51. Ermanno Olmi

Director | L'albero degli zoccoli

Ermanno Olmi was born on July 24, 1931 in Bergamo, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978), The Legend of the Holy Drinker (1988) and Il posto (1961). He was married to Loredana Detto. He died on May 5, 2018 in Asiago, Veneto, Italy.

52. Dante Ferretti

Production_designer | Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Dante Ferretti was born on February 26, 1943 in Macerata, Marche, Italy. He is a production designer and set decorator, known for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Shutter Island (2010) and The Age of Innocence (1993).

53. Massimo Girotti

Actor | Ultimo tango a Parigi

Manly, chiseled, exceedingly handsome, very agile Massimo Girotti was an engineering student and polo/swimming star before entering films in 1939. He began auspiciously in serious leads, most notably Roberto Rossellini's Desire (1946), Luchino Visconti's Obsession (1943) and Vittorio De Sica's The ...

54. Gianni Di Venanzo

Cinematographer | 8½

Gianni Di Venanzo was born on December 18, 1920 in Teramo, Abruzzo, Italy. He was a cinematographer, known for 8½ (1963), The Girlfriends (1955) and Juliet of the Spirits (1965). He died on February 3, 1966 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

55. Anita Ekberg

Actress | La dolce vita

Kerstin Anita Marianne Ekberg was born on September 29, 1931 in Malmo, Sweden. Growing up with seven brothers and sisters was not an adventure, but Anita's adventure began when she was elected Miss Sweden in 1950. She did not win the Miss Universe contest but she got a modeling contract in the ...

56. Aldo Fabrizi

Actor | Roma città aperta

Beloved, hugely popular Italian comic character actor/writer/director, in music halls and variety shows for much of his early career. Fabrizi entered films in 1942 and often wrote and directed his vehicles, winning international acclaim in the Roberto Rossellini's neorealist drama Rome, Open City (...

57. Liliana Cavani

Director | L'ospite

Liliana Cavani was born on January 12, 1933 in Carpi, Emilia-Romagna, Italy. She is a director and writer, known for L'ospite (1971), Dove siete? Io sono qui (1993) and The Night Porter (1974).

58. Giovanna Mezzogiorno

Actress | Vincere

Giovanna Mezzogiorno was born on November 9, 1974 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress and director, known for Vincere (2009), Love in the Time of Cholera (2007) and Facing Windows (2003). She has been married to Alessio Federico Fugolo since October 24, 2009. They have two children.

59. Massimo Troisi

Actor | Il postino

His acting career started when he was 15 in a theatre (Centro Teatro Spazio). In 1969 he founded the group "I saraceni" (later renamed "La smorfia") with Enzo Decaro and Lello Arena. He became famous to the TV audience between 1976 and 1979 with two TV programs "Non Stop" and "Luna Park". First ...

60. Elio Germano

Actor | Il giovane favoloso

Elio Germano was born on September 25, 1980 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for Leopardi (2014), Nine (2009) and Mio fratello è figlio unico (2007).

61. Renato Castellani

Writer | Romeo and Juliet

Renato Castellani was born on September 4, 1913 in Finale Ligure, Liguria, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Romeo and Juliet (1954), Two Cents Worth of Hope (1952) and Sotto il sole di Roma (1948). He died on December 28, 1985 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

62. Paolo Virzì

Writer | La prima cosa bella

Paolo Virzì was born on March 4, 1964 in Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. He is a writer and director, known for The First Beautiful Thing (2010), Tutta la vita davanti (2008) and Like Crazy (2016). He has been married to Micaela Ramazzotti since January 17, 2009. They have two children. He was previously ...

63. Raf Vallone

Actor | The Italian Job

Raf Vallone was an internationally acclaimed Italian movie star known for his rugged good looks. The athletic Vallone, a former soccer player who often was compared to Burt Lancaster, was born Raffaele Vallone in 1916 in Tropea in Calabria, Italy, the son of a prominent lawyer and his aristocratic ...

64. Stefania Sandrelli

Actress | Il conformista

She was born in Viareggio (Tuscany, Italy) on June 5th, 1946. She won a beauty contest when she was just 15 years old, which led to her first role in "Il federale" together with the great Italian actor Ugo Tognazzi. She was then cast by Germi for the Italian comedy "Divorzio all'Italiana", working ...

65. Pasqualino De Santis

Cinematographer | Romeo and Juliet

Pasqualino De Santis was born on April 24, 1927 in Fondi, Lazio, Italy. He was a cinematographer, known for Romeo and Juliet (1968), Death in Venice (1971) and Three Brothers (1981). He died on June 23, 1996 in Lviv, Ukraine.

66. Valeria Bruni Tedeschi

Actress | La pazza gioia

Valeria Bruni Tedeschi was born on November 16, 1964 in Turin, Piedmont, Italy. She is an actress and director, known for Like Crazy (2016), Il est plus facile pour un chameau... (2003) and Human Capital (2013).

67. Gina Lollobrigida

Actress | Notre-Dame de Paris

Gina Lollobrigida was born on July 4, 1927 in Subiaco, Italy. Destined to be called "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", Gina possibly had St. Brigid as part of her surname. She was the daughter of a furniture manufacturer, and grew up in the pictorial mountain village. The young Gina did some ...

68. Valeria Golino

Actress | Rain Man

Valeria Golino is an Italian actress and film director. She is known to English-language audiences for her role in Rain Man, Big Top Pee-wee and the two Hot Shots! films, especially the olive-in-the-belly-button scene. The second child of an Italian germanist and a Greek painter, Valeria Golino ...

69. Bernardino Zapponi

Writer | Profondo rosso

Bernardino Zapponi was born on September 4, 1927 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a writer, known for Deep Red (1975), Il marchese del Grillo (1981) and Casanova (1976). He died on February 11, 2000 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

70. Ferzan Özpetek

Director | La finestra di fronte

He is a Turkish-Italian director, screenwriter and writer. In 1976, he first went to Perugia Foreigners University in Italy, learned Italian for a year, and then transferred to Rome La Sapienza University to study cinema. After completing his education there, he went to Accademia Navona and ...

71. Giulio Brogi

Actor | Strategia del ragno

Giulio Brogi was born on May 13, 1931 in Verona, Veneto, Italy. He was an actor, known for The Spider's Stratagem (1970), St. Michael Had a Rooster (1972) and The Seagull (1977). He died on February 19, 2019 in Negrar, Veneto, Italy.

72. Roberto Benigni

Actor | La vita è bella

Roberto Benigni was born on October 27, 1952 in Manciano La Misericordia, Castiglion Fiorentino, Tuscany, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for Life Is Beautiful (1997), The Tiger and the Snow (2005) and Down by Law (1986). He has been married to Nicoletta Braschi since December 26, 1991.

73. Valentina Cortese

Actress | La nuit américaine

Valentina Cortese was born in Milan on New Year's Day of 1923. She made her movie debut in 1940 and played many "ingenue" parts in Italian films of that period, before making a real sensation in Caccia all'uomo (1948) and Tempesta su Parigi (1948), playing both female leads, Fantine and Cosette (...

74. Franco Citti

Actor | The Godfather

Franco Citti was born on April 23, 1935 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor and director, known for The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part III (1990) and Accattone (1961). He died on January 14, 2016 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

75. Gualtiero Jacopetti

Writer | Mondo cane

Gualtiero Jacopetti was born on September 4, 1919 in Barga, Tuscany, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for A Dog's Life (1962), Goodbye Uncle Tom (1971) and Mondo candido (1975). He was married to Jolanda Kaldaras. He died on August 17, 2011 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

76. Dino De Laurentiis

Producer | Le notti di Cabiria

Dino De Laurentiis left home at age 17 to enrol in film school, supporting himself as an actor, extra, propman, or any other job he could get in the film industry. His persistence paid off, and by the time he reached his 20th birthday he already had one produced film under his belt. After serving ...

77. Carlo Lizzani

Director | Banditi a Milano

Carlo Lizzani was born on April 3, 1922 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for The Violent Four (1968), Chronicle of Poor Lovers (1954) and Celluloide (1996). He was married to Edith Bieber. He died on October 5, 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

78. Maria Schneider

Actress | Ultimo tango a Parigi

Maria Schneider was a French actress. At age 19 she became famous for Bernardo Bertolucci's film Last Tango in Paris (1972), and The Passenger (1975).

As a teenager, she adored films, going to the cinema up to four times a week. She left home at 15 after an argument with her mother and went to Paris...

79. Silvio Orlando

Actor | Il caimano

Silvio Orlando was born on June 30, 1957 in Naples, Campania, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for The Caiman (2006), Il posto dell'anima (2003) and The Inner Cage (2021). He has been married to Maria Laura Rondanini since October 7, 2008.

80. Emanuele Crialese

Writer | Respiro

Although born in Rome in 1965, Emanuele Crialese has Sicilian roots, to which he pays tribute in film after film. In 1991 he leaves for the USA where he studies film direction at New York University. After making several shorts, he directs his first feature-length movie Once We Were Strangers (1997)...

81. Mariangela Melato

Actress | Flash Gordon

Mariangela Melato was born on September 19, 1941 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. She was an actress and writer, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Swept Away (1974) and Love & Anarchy (1973). She died on January 11, 2013 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

82. Michele Placido

Actor | La piovra

Michele Placido was born on May 19, 1946 in Ascoli Satriano, Puglia, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for La piovra (1984), Romanzo Criminale (2005) and Un eroe borghese (1995). He has been married to Federica Vincenti since August 14, 2012. They have one child. He was previously married to ...

83. Piero Tosi

Costume_designer | Il gattopardo

Piero Tosi was born on April 10, 1927 in Sesto Fiorentino, Tuscany, Italy. He was a costume designer and set decorator, known for The Leopard (1963), Death in Venice (1971) and La Traviata (1982). He died on August 10, 2019 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

84. Alice Rohrwacher

Director | Lazzaro felice

Alice Rohrwacher was born on December 29, 1981 in Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy. She is a director and writer, known for Happy as Lazzaro (2018), La Chimera (2023) and The Wonders (2014).

85. Virna Lisi

Actress | La reine Margot

Stunning Italian actress Virna Lisi, a brief but lovely Hollywood import in the 1960's, was merely one of a plethora of European movie beauties who proved over the course of their long careers, that they were capable of more than just visual performances.

Born Virna Lisa Pieralisi on November 8, ...

86. Gianni Amelio

Director | Il ladro di bambini

After school, Amelio studied philosophy. He graduated with a doctorate. Amelio developed a keen interest in film at a young age. In 1970 he began working as a cameraman for the Italian state television RAI. A little later, Amelio worked as an assistant director for RAI. In 1970 he directed his ...

87. Gabriele Salvatores

Director | Nirvana

Salvatores attended school in the Lombard metropolis. He started doing theater there. After graduating from high school, Salvatores enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Milan in 1968. He then studied at the Accademia d''arte drammatica, a drama school at the Piccolo Teatro di Milano....

88. Margherita Buy

Actress | Mia madre

Margherita Buy was born on January 15, 1962 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress and writer, known for Mia madre (2015), The Ignorant Fairies (2001) and Days and Clouds (2007). She was previously married to Sergio Rubini.

89. Ornella Muti

Actress | Flash Gordon

Ornella Muti was born on March 9, 1955 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. She is an actress, known for Flash Gordon (1980), Oscar (1991) and The Most Beautiful Wife (1970). She was previously married to Federico Fachinetti and Alessio Orano.

90. Kim Rossi Stuart

Actor | Vallanzasca - Gli angeli del male

Kim Rossi Stuart was born on October 31th, 1969 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He began acting at the age of 5 along with his father Giacomo Rossi Stuart in The Murri Affair (1974). Kim's mother, Klara Müller, is an ex-top model. Kim has 3 sisters, 2 of them actresses like him: Loretta Rossi Stuart and ...

91. Luigi Comencini

Writer | Voltati Eugenio

Luigi Comencini was born on June 8, 1916 in Salò, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Voltati Eugenio (1980), Everybody Go Home! (1960) and Bread, Love and Dreams (1953). He was married to Giulia Grifeo. He died on April 6, 2007 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

92. Alberto Lattuada

Writer | Guendalina

Alberto Lattuada was born on November 13, 1914 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a writer and director, known for Guendalina (1957), Flesh Will Surrender (1947) and Bambina (1974). He was married to Carla Del Poggio. He died on July 3, 2005 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

93. Riccardo Scamarcio

Actor | John Wick: Chapter 2

Riccardo Scamarcio was born on November 13, 1979 in Trani, Apulia, Italy. He is an actor and producer, known for John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017), Loose Cannons (2010) and Tre metri sopra il cielo (2004).

94. Mario Martone

Director | L'amore molesto

Mario Martone was born on November 20, 1959 in Naples, Campania, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for L'amore molesto (1995), The King of Laughter (2021) and Capri-Revolution (2018). He has been married to Ippolita Di Majo since 2010. They have one child.

95. Luciano Emmer

Director | Domenica d'agosto

Luciano Emmer was born on January 19, 1918 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a director and writer, known for Sunday in August (1950), L'acqua... il fuoco (2003) and Il paradiso perduto (1949). He died on September 16, 2009 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

96. Laura Morante

Actress | La cerise sur le gâteau

Laura Morante was born on August 21, 1956 in Santa Fiora, Tuscany, Italy. She is an actress and writer, known for Cherry on the Cake (2012), The Son's Room (2001) and Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981). She has been married to Francesco Giammatteo since October 3, 2004. She was previously married ...

97. Ugo Tognazzi

Actor | La Cage aux folles

Among others of Ugo Tognazzi's superb, award-winning performances of his prolific career, this excellent Italian character star has been widely cherished for his classic comedy role of gay cabaret owner Renato Baldi, opposite Michel Serrault's hilariously mincing drag queen partner Alban, in La ...

98. Carla Del Poggio

Actress | Senza pietà

At 15, while she was studying foreign languages and modern dance, she started attending the Italian school for performing arts, Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia of Rome. The director Vittorio De Sica chose her for her debut role in "Maddalena, zero in condotta". At 19, she met her future ...

99. Luca Guadagnino

Director | Call Me by Your Name

Luca Guadagnino was born on August 10, 1971 in Palermo, Sicily, Italy. He is a director and producer, known for Call Me by Your Name (2017), Suspiria (2018) and Bones and All (2022).

100. Daniele Luchetti

Director | Il portaborse

Daniele Luchetti was born on July 26, 1960 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He is a director and writer, known for The Yes Man (1991), Mio fratello è figlio unico (2007) and It's Happening Tomorrow (1988).