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- 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, 1936, she began her film career as a 17-year-old teen with a co-starring part with the musical drama ...e Napoli canta! (1953) (Naples Sings!). Cast initially for her photographic beauty, she gained more experience in such early pictures as Lettera napoletana (1954) and La corda d'acciaio (1954) before earning her first top-billed movie lead in Piccola santa (1954) opposite Rosario Borelli. Other late 50's/early 60's films that helped steam up her image included Luna nova (1955), Le diciottenni (1955), La rossa (1955), The Doll That Took the Town (1957), Lost Souls (1959) opposite Jacques Sernas, Don't Tempt the Devil (1963) (Don't Tempt the Devil), Sua Eccellenza si fermò a mangiare (1961) (His Excellency Stayed to Dinner], the Italian-made spectacle, Duel of the Titans (1961) and an innocent role in the French-made Eva (1962) starring the scheming Jeanne Moreau in the title role.
The pert and sexy star later made a decorative dent in late 1960's Hollywood as a tempting blue-eyed blonde opposite the likes of Jack Lemmon in How to Murder Your Wife (1965), Frank Sinatra in Assault on a Queen (1966) and Tony Curtis in Not with My Wife, You Don't! (1966). Confined once again to the same type of glamour roles (she turned down the title role of "Barbarella"), she returned to Europe within a couple of years but hardly fared better with such nothing special movies as Anyone Can Play (1967), The Girl Who Couldn't Say No (1968), The Christmas Tree (1969), The Statue (1971), Bluebeard (1972) and White Fang (1973) and its sequel Challenge to White Fang (1974).
Come middle age, however, a career renaissance occurred for Virna. She began to be perceived as more than just a tasty dish and was given a wide variety of quality mature performances. As the stature of her films improved, she began winning foreign awards right and left for such European pictures as Beyond Good and Evil (1977), The Cricket (1980), Time for Loving (1983), Buon Natale... Buon anno (1989) and Va' dove ti porta il cuore (1996) (Follow Your Heart). It all culminated in the lifetime role of the malevolent "Caterina de Medici" in Queen Margot (1994) for which she captured both the César and Cannes Film Festival awards, not to mention the Italian Silver Ribbon award.
Virna continued reigning supreme on TV as a character lead and support player into the millennium with parts in such TV movies as the title role in Anna's World (2004) and Donne sbagliate (2007) (Steel Women) as well as Italian TV series work. Starring as the matriarch in the excellent family film drama Il più bel giorno della mia vita (2002), Virna would find her last excellent movie role in the award-winning dramedy Latin Lover (2015). Having passed away on December 14, 2014, at age 78, of lung cancer, the actress received a couple of award nominations posthumously for her work here. Survived by her son Corrado, her longtime husband (from 1960), architect Franco Pesci (1934-2013), died a year earlier. - Andrea Scarduzio studied at the prestigious "Lee Strasberg Institute" in Los Angeles where he was one of few to ever be awarded a full scholarship. Upon graduation, Andrea worked on "Cake" with Joe Estevez and G.W. Bailey and the "Color of the Cross", the first Hollywood movie about a black Jesus Christ. Most recently Andrea appeared on "Til Death" opposite Brad Garrett.
- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Roberto Minervini was born in 1970 in Fermo, Marche, Italy. Roberto is a director and producer, known for Stop The Pounding Heart (2013), The Other Side (2015) and What You Gonna Do When the World's on Fire? (2018).- Actress
- Soundtrack
The dark, delicate and demure beauty of an Anna Maria Alberghetti is what one envisions a princess to look like and, indeed, she did have a chance to play a couple in her lifetime. Reminding one instantly of the equally enchanting Pier Angeli, Anna Maria's Cinderella story did not take on a tragic storybook ending as it did for Ms. Angeli. On the contrary, Anna Maria continues to delight audiences today on many levels, particularly on the concert and lecture stages.
She was born in a musical home in Pesaro, Italy, in 1936, the daughter of a concertmaster father and pianist mother. They greatly influenced her obvious talent and by age six she was performing with symphony orchestras with her father as her vocal instructor. World War II had forced the Alberghettis from their homeland and after performing in a European tour, Anna Maria's pure operatic tones reached American ears via her Carnegie Hall debut at age 14. The family decided to settle permanently in the States. The teenager went on to perform with numerous symphony orchestras during this time.
In 1950 Paramount saw a bright future in the making. Within a short time she was capturing hearts on film, making a magical debut in the eerie but hypnotic Gian Carlo Menotti's chamber opera The Medium (1951). Opposite the magnificent Marie Powers in the title role as the fraudulent Madame Flora, Anna Maria was directed by Menotti himself in the independently-produced film. While the movie was appreciated in art house form, Paramount wasted no time in placing the photogenic Anna into mainstream filming. Her budding talent was strangely used, however. She had an extended operatic solo in the breezy Capraesque Bing Crosby/Jane Wyman comedy Here Comes the Groom (1951), and played a Polish émigré befriended by a singer (played by Rosemary Clooney) who discovers the girl has musical talent of her own in the so-so The Stars Are Singing (1953). Anna's songs included the touching "My Kind of Day" and "My Heart Is Home". Thereafter, for some strange reason, her vocals were not utilized. She acted instead in such rugged adventures as The Last Command (1955) and Duel at Apache Wells (1957), and in the fluffy comedy Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957) opposite Dean Martin. And, in the end, she was lovely but utterly wasted as the Prince Charming equivalent in the gender-bending Jerry Lewis farce Cinderfella (1960). Not only does she arrive late in the film, but Jerry gave her no songs to sing -- he sang them all!
Extremely disillusioned, Anna Maria departed from films in the early 60s and instead sought out work on the Broadway stage. It was here that she found that elusive star. Following a role in the operetta "Rose Marie" in 1960, Anna Maria won the part of a lifetime as the waif-like Lili in the musical "Carnival", based on Leslie Caron's charming title film role. Anna Maria was utterly delightful and quite moving in the role and for her efforts was awarded the Tony Award -- tying in her category with Diahann Carroll for "No Strings". Anna Maria's sister Carla replaced her when she left the show. Throughout the 60s she continued to impress in musical ingénue showcases -- the title role in "Fanny" (1963), Maria in "West Side Story" (1964), Marsinah in "Kismet" (1967) (which was televised), and Luisa in "The Fantasticks" (1968), to name but a few.
As she matured, she made a mark in other facets of entertainment. On TV Ed Sullivan first introduced Anna Maria to millions of households and the public was thoroughly taken by this singing angel. She appeared with Sullivan a near-record 53 times. She also graced a number of popular TV shows with non-singing, damsel-in-distress roles on such shows as "Wagon Train" and "Checkmate". Her recording career has included associations with Capitol, Columbia, Mercury and MGM Records.
In 1964, Anna married TV director/producer Claudio Guzmán who was almost a decade older. The ten-year marriage produced two daughters, Alexandra and Pilar. She began to downplay her career after this in favor of parenting, particularly after her divorce in 1974.
Returning to the theater on occasion, Anna Maria later reintroduced herself back into TV households as the housewife/pitchwoman for "Good Seasons" salad dressing. Her one-woman stage show led to her interest as a cabaret performer. More recent film appearances have included fun roles in the comedies Friends and Family (2001) and The Whole Shebang (2001).- Denise Tantucci was born on 14 March 1997 in Fano, Marche, Italy. She is an actress, known for Three Floors (2021), Darkness (2019) and Likemeback (2018).
- 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 Gates of Heaven (1945), while his physical stature and all-round athletism were put to good use in actioneers such as Spartaco (1953) in which he played the pre-Kirk Douglas slave-turned-leader role of Spartacus. By the 60s, however, Girotti was reduced to support roles in swashbuckling adventure and badly-dubbed sand-and-spear spectacles, appearing only occasionally in well-mounted films of quality, such as Pier Paolo Pasolini's Teorema (1968), Bernardo Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris (1972) and Visconti's The Innocent (1976). He died only a few weeks before the release of his last film, Ferzan Özpetek's Facing Windows (2003).
- Actress
- Additional Crew
Alice Pagani was born on 19 February 1998 in Ascoli Piceno, Marche, Italy. She is an actress, known for The Story of Your Life (2008), The Croods: A New Age (2020) and Don't Kill Me (2021).- Actress
- Producer
Emanuela Postacchini was born on 7 July 1991 in Sant'Elpidio a Mare, Fermo, Marche, Italy. She is an actress and producer, known for Who Is America? (2018), The Seven Faces of Jane (2022) and The Alienist (2018).- Luciana Ottaviani was born on 8 August 1967 in Urbino, Marche, Italy. She is an actress, known for Eleven Days, Eleven Nights (1987), Top Model (1988) and Luna di sangue (1989).
- A staple of both the arthouse and grindhouse cinemas for nearly 50 years, Venantino Venantini only began acting as a way to finance his first passion - art. Accepted into the prestigious École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts of Paris, he took on extra work in films like Ben-Hur (1959) to finance his trip to France, which he made in a week on a Lambretta motor scooter.
A chance encounter with director Georges Lautner saw him cast in his breakthrough role, as a hitman in the Lino Ventura vehicle Crooks in Clover (1963). Venantini found quickly regular work in Italian, French, and even some American films; moving effortlessly from big-budget epics like The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965), to the grimiest of the grimey exploitation films, like several of Joe D'Amato's "Black Emanuelle" films.
In 1999, he won the Silver Ribbon for Best Supporting Actor together with the other actors in the cast of Ettore Scola's La cena (1998). He continued acting, primarily in French productions, until his death by complications from femur surgery in 2018. His son, Luca Venantini, followed in his footsteps and has become a prolific actor in his own right. - Andrea Di Luigi was born on 17 October 1995 in Ascoli Piceno, Marche, Italy. He is an actor, known for Nuovo Olimpo (2023), Il Corpo and To the Top - Pier Giorgio Frassati (2023).
- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Shaun Brown is an American actor born on March Air Force Base in Riverside, California. Growing up Shaun Brown wanted to be a heart surgeon but when he was cast in his first musical, "West Side Story", he instantly fell in love with acting and continued exploring this new love with many high school musical productions.
After doing two national tours of musical theater productions, Shaun shifted his attention to television and film and began to study the Meisner technique intensely. Having been a musical theater actor since his teen years, the Meisner technique forced him to focus on listening and simplifying his acting tremendously. This transition in thought led him to book his first guest star television credit, the short lived series Bar Karma starring William Sanderson.
Soon after shooting Bar Karma, Shaun moved to Los Angeles, California. He began working as a bar-back and cocktail server at a fine dining restaurant to support himself and pay for head shots and acting classes. While attending a comedy showcase, that he was invited to by his commercial agent, the host the of the showcase spotted Shaun in the middle of his stand-up routine and commented on Shaun's interesting look. He then made Shaun stand up and told the audience of agents to sign him. The next day he was contacted by and agent and signed with him.- Production Designer
- Art Department
- Set Decorator
Dante Ferretti was born on 26 February 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 Hugo (2011).- Valentino Rossi is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. He is considered to be the greatest and one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name - seven of which are in the premier class.
Following his father, Graziano Rossi, Valentino started racing in Grand Prix in 1996 for Aprilia in the 125cc category and won his first World Championship the following year. From there, he moved up to the 250cc category with Aprilia and won the 250cc World Championship in 1999. After graduating to the premier class in 2000, he won the 500cc World Championship with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha, before regaining the title in 2008 and retaining it in 2009. He left Yamaha to join Ducati for the 2011 season, but it was confirmed in 2012 that he would rejoin Yamaha for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. He suffered two winless seasons while at Ducati. - Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Riz Ortolani was born on 25 March 1926 in Pesaro, Marche, Italy. He was a composer and actor, known for Day of Anger (1967), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) and Festa di laurea (1985). He was married to Katina Ranieri. He died on 23 January 2014 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Actor
- Writer
- Director
Vittorio Duse was born on 21 March 1916 in Loreto, Marche, Italy. He was an actor and writer, known for The Godfather Part III (1990), Il nostro campione (1955) and The Leopard (1963). He died on 2 June 2005 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Paolo Camilli was born on 23 September 1986 in Marche, Italy. He is an actor, known for The White Lotus (2021), Leopardi&Co. and Mascarpone (2021).
- Lucia Mascino is a theater, cinema and television actress. She played the lead in the television series "Una mamma imperfetta," written and directed by Ivan Cotroneo, was the female protagonist in the Sky series "I delitti del Barlumem," written and directed by Roan Johnson. In 2015 she starred with Christian De Sica in "Fraulein, a winter fairy tale", the debut by Caterina Carone, and in 2016's "Love that cannot be in the world" by Francesca Comencini, for which she won the Anna Magnani award at Bifest di Bari, and for the Nastri d'Argento Award as best leading actress in 2018.
- Actress
- Director
- Writer
Elsa De Giorgi was born on 26 January 1914 in Pesaro, Marche, Italy. She was an actress and director, known for Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), La sposa dei re (1938) and Sangue + fango = Logos passione (1975). She was married to Sandro Contini Bonacossi. She died on 12 September 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.- Director
- Producer
- Writer
Giuseppe Capotondi was born in 1968 in Corinaldo, Marche, Italy. He is a director and producer, known for The Double Hour (2009), Blocco 181 (2022) and Berlin Station (2016).- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Rinaldo Talamonti was born on 25 August 1947 in San Benedetto del Tronto, Marche, Italy. He is an actor and writer, known for Zwei im 7. Himmel (1974), The Broken Crown (2014) and Zwei Teufelskerle auf dem Weg ins Kloster (1975). He was previously married to Roswitha Talamonti.- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Iginio Straffi is an Italian artist and TV producer. He is the founder of the Rainbow animation studio, which he co-owns alongside Viacom (the American company that owns Nickelodeon).
In 1965, Straffi was born in the municipality of Gualdo, in the Province of Macerata. Gualdo is located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the city of Macerata. In 1973 his family moved to Macerata.
Straffi became interested in comic book illustration as a child, and started creating his own comics stories at the age of 7. As a teenager he participated in art competitions. He received his college education at the University of Macerata, where he studied literature and modern languages. He dated a foreign-born girl named Antonella, who was raised in Italy by foster parents. Antonella expressed a desire to someday meet her biological parents, and Straffi later used her story as an inspiration for the backstory of Bloom, Winx Club's lead character.
Straffi started his professional career as a comics artist in 1985, when his first story was published in "Tilt". His subsequent stories were published in the weekly magazines "Lanciostory" and "Skorpio",the monthly magazine "Comic Art", and the science fiction anthology magazine "Métal hurlant" (whose stories were republished in the United States under the title "Heavy Metal") .
In 1989, Straffi was recruited by veteran comics writer Claudio Nizzi (1938-) to work as an artist for the then-new detective series "Nick Raider" (1988-2005). The series was published by "Sergio Bonelli Editore", one of Italy's leading comic book publishers. From 1990 to 1992, Straffi served as the lead creative artist for Nick Raider.
Straffi was interested in joining the animation industry, and in 1992 accepted a job offer to work as a storyboard artist for the French animation studio "Telcima". He moved to France for his new job. He worked on a failed pilot for a television adaptation of the long-running science fiction series "Valérian and Laureline" (1967-2010). He also worked on a film adaptation of the medieval tales "Reynard the Fox", which ended in development hell.
By 1995, Straffi had become experienced with the many stages of work used in animation productions. He returned to Italy and secured financing to start his own animation studio, Rainbow S.p.A. He purchased computers and software for digital design.Rainbow at first offered its services to larger companies, producing commissioned work. The company first produced its own television series with the superhero tale Tommy and Oscar (2000-2002).
In 2004, Straffi created his most ambitious television series project, Winx Club. The series debuted on the Italian public television channel "Rai 2", and soon became one of the network's highest-rated programs. Winx Club became an international success, attracting the interest of the American company "Viacom", which owns the popular "Nickelodeon" brand. By the fourth season of Winx Club, Viacom began discussions with Straffi to become a co-owner of Rainbow.
In 2011, Viacom purchased a 30% share of Rainbow at the price of 83 million dollars. Viacom agreed to finance new seasons of Winx Club and other television projects by Rainbow, and to broadcast them on its Nickelodeon channels worldwide. Straffi retains the remaining 70% of Rainbow.
While Straffi has produced 3 animated films based on Winx Club, his first animated feature film based on an original story was the historical comedy "Gladiators of Rome" (2012). It cost about 80 million dollars to produce, becoming one of the most expensive Italian film productions. It performed poorly at the box office, grossing 10 million dollars in worldwide release.
Straffi served as a producer on the live-action television series Club 57 (2019-), which was a co-production with Viacom's Nickelodeon. He has stated that he plans to shift his focus from animated projects to live-action works. By 2020, he had signed off on a live-action adaptation of Winx Club, called "Fate: The Winx Saga".- Cinematographer
- Director
- Camera and Electrical Department
Stelvio Massi was born on 26 March 1929 in Civitanova Marche, Italy. He was a cinematographer and director, known for A Fistful of Dollars (1964), Emergency Squad (1974) and Fearless (1978). He died on 26 March 2004 in Velletri, Italy.- Director
- Writer
- Editor
Giuliana Gamba was born on 26 November 1953 in Pesaro, Marche, Italy. She is a director and writer, known for Roma dodici novembre 1994 (1995) and Cover Boy... Last Revolution (2006).- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
As a son of a horn player and a singer Rossini was taught instruments early in his life. When he was older he went to the conservatory of Bologna for lessons. His first opera was such a big success that a lot of people wanted him to write more pieces. But nevertheless in 1816 his masterpiece "The Barber of Seville" failed although later it received the attention it deserved. In 1823 Rossini became the director of the Italian Opera in Paris, but when he stopped working he left for Italy only to return in 1853 and stay in Paris until his death in 1868.