Best Italian Actors
by jacopo-salvadori2014 | created - 14 Mar 2014 | updated - 20 Feb 2019 | Public
1. 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 ...
2. 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 ...
3. Peppino De Filippo
Actor | Luci del varietà
Born in Naples in 1903, Peppino De Filippo debuted at the age of 6 in Scarpetta's 'Miseria e Nobilta' in Rome. He studied the piano and went away to college for two years. During WWI, back in Naples, he joined Scarpetta's company 'Molinari', and it was here that he met Totò. At 22, he joined the ...
4. 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.
5. 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 ...
6. 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 ...
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. Gino Cervi
Actor | Don Camillo
The son of Italian theatre critic Antonio Cervi, Gino Cervi was one of the most famous Italian actors, first on stage, then on screen and finally on television. He appeared in his first play in 1924, a year after his father's death. He won world fame with three movies directed by Alessandro Blasetti...
9. Adolfo Celi
Actor | Thunderball
Sicilian born actor/writer/director was very popular with European audiences, but largely unknown to the west apart from his portrayal of the villainous SPECTRE agent "Emilio Largo" in the spectacular James Bond film Thunderball (1965). However, due to his heavy accent, Celi's voice was dubbed by ...
10. Bud Spencer
Actor | ...altrimenti ci arrabbiamo!
Bud Spencer, the popular Italian actor who starred in innumerable spaghetti Westerns and action-packed potboilers during the 1960s and 1970s, was born Carlo Pedersoli on October 31, 1929, in Naples. The first Italian to swim the 100-meter freestyle in less than a minute, Spencer competed as a ...
11. Terrence Hill
Director | Iron Horse Rodeo
Terrence Hill was born on January 25, 1965 in Springfield, Oregon, USA. He is a director, known for Iron Horse Rodeo (1993) and America's Funniest Home Videos (1989).
12. 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...
13. Renzo Montagnani
Actor | Quando le donne avevano la coda
Renzo Montagnani was born on September 11, 1930 in Alessandria, Piedmont, Italy. He was an actor, known for When Women Had Tails (1970), When Women Lost Their Tails (1972) and The Betrothed (1989). He died on May 22, 1997 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
14. Enzo Cannavale
Actor | Nuovo Cinema Paradiso
First of four brothers, he was discovered by Eduardo De Filippo when he was a post office clerk. In reality, according to the testimony of a former colleague still living, he was employed at the Military Hospital of Naples. Exponent of the Neapolitan theater, actor with ironic and comic verve, ...
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