Biography for
Marcello Mastroianni More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

28 September 1924, Fontana Liri, Latium, Italy

Date of Death

19 December 1996, Paris, Ile-de-France, France (pancreatic cancer)

Birth Name

Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastrojanni

Height

5' 9¼" (1.76 m)

Mini Biography

Marcello Mastroianni was born in 1924, in Fontana Liri, Italy, 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. In 1945 he started working for the Italian department of "Eagle Lion Films" in Rome and joined a drama club, where he was discovered by director Luchino Visconti. He made his "official" movie debut in the film I miserabili (1948) and La bella mugnaia (1955). In 1957 Visconti gave him the starring part in his Fyodor Dostoyevsky adaptation Le notti bianche (1957) and in 1958 he was fine as a little thief in Mario Monicelli's comedy I soliti ignoti (1958). But his real breakthrough came in 1960, when Federico Fellini cast him as an attractive, weary-eyed journalist of the Rome jet-set in La dolce vita (1960); that film was the genesis of his "Latin lover" persona, which Mastroianni himself often denied by accepting parts of passive and sensitive men. He would again work with Fellini in several major films, like the exquisite 8½ (1963) (as a movie director who finds himself at a point of crisis) and the touching Ginger e Fred (1986) (as an old entertainer who appears in a TV show). He also appeared as a tired novelist with marital problems in Michelangelo Antonioni's La notte (1961), as an impotent young man in Mauro Bolognini's Il bell'Antonio (1960) , as an exiled prince in John Boorman's Leo the Last (1970), as a traitor in Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Allonsanfàn (1974) and as a sensitive homosexual in love with a housewife in Ettore Scola's Una giornata particolare (1977). During the last decade of his life he worked with directors, like Theodoros Angelopoulos, Bertrand Blier and Raoul Ruiz, who gave him three excellent parts in Trois vies & une seule mort (1996). He died of pancreatic cancer in 1996.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Thanassis Agathos

Spouse

Flora Carabella

(12 August 1950 - 19 December 1996) (his death) 1 child

Trade Mark

Often cast as the "Latin Lover"

Trivia

Father of Chiara Mastroianni and Barbara Mastroianni

Older brother of film editor Ruggero Mastroianni, who edited several of Marcello's films directed by Federico Fellini

From 1971 to 1975 he had an intense relationship with french actress Catherine Deneuve. She was at his bedside when he died, along with their daughter, Chiara Mastroianni.

Told interviewers that Federico Fellini hired him for La dolce vita (1960) because he had a "terribly ordinary face".

Uncle of Federica Mastroianni.

Federico Fellini nicknamed him "Snaporaz" while they are working on La dolce vita (1960); 20 years later this was the name of the character he played in La città delle donne (1980).

Since 1998, a "Marcello Mastroianni Award" is given to the best "first time" young actor/actress at the Venice Film Festival.

He is buried in the Cimitero Monumentale del Verano in Rome, Italy.

During his studies at the Centro Universiatio Teatrale, he got to know Luchino Visconti, who gave him a role in "Un Tram che si chiama desiderio" (A Streetcar Named Desire) under his direction. At that time, he also met Anna Magnani and Federico Fellini.

His three Oscar nominations for Divorzio all'italiana (1961), Una giornata particolare (1977), and Oci ciornie (1987) are the record for a performer in a foreign language film. The only other performers with multiple Oscar nominations for foreign language films are Sophia Loren, Liv Ullmann and Isabelle Adjani with two each.

Visited the genius Sergei Parajanov at his house in Tbilisi, Georgia, Soviet Union in 1980s and then, in July of 1990, along with Federico Fellini, Tonino Guerra and Bernardo Bertolucci wrote: "With the death of Sergei Paradjanov cinema lost one of its magicians".

Personal Quotes

"To play Tarzan - at my age, with a big belly; even Cheetah with white hair. We've had enough strong and beautiful Tarzans!" - at 60

I am not a sex addict.

I don't understand why these Americans have to suffer so much to identify with their characters. Me, I just get up there and act. It's great fun. There's no suffering in it.

(When asked what keeps him going in his theatrical endeavors) In front of a camera, I feel solid, satisfied. Away from it I am empty, confused.

They come for you in the morning in a limousine; they take you to the studio; they stick a pretty girl in your arms... They call that a profession? Come on!

I only exist when I am working on a film.

(on his views of women) Woman is the sun, an extraordinary creature, one that makes the imagination gallop. Woman is also the element of conflict. With whom do you argue? With a woman, of course. Not with a friend, because he accepted all your defects the moment he found you. Besides, woman is mother-have we forgotten?

(Talking about actors) Theater actors like to change character roles. They don't like to always do the same thing.

I made theater very important in the beginning of my career.

Each year we look for a big name that is attractive to the public and pleasant for the girls.

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