Seven Beauties

Background:

Giancarlo Giannini is an Academy Award-nominated Italian actor, director and multilingual dubber who created a worldwide reputation for his leading roles in Italian cinema as well as for his mastery of various dialects. A charming, melancholic star of the 1970s who acted in a series of Lina Wertmuller motion pictures, the good-looking actor was launched to international stardom with his Oscar-nominated portrayal of a survivor of a concentration camp in Wertmuller’s Pasqualino Settebellezze/Seven Beauties (1975). Under the direction of Wertmuller, Giannini also gained success in such movies as The Seduction of Mimi (1972, earned a David di Donatello Award and an Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists Award), Love and Anarchy (1973, won a Cannes Film Festival Award) and Swept Away (1974). Giannini is also best remembered for his award-winning portrayals in films like Alberto Lattuada’s I Did It (1973), Nanny Loy’s Mi manda Picone (1984), Come due coccodrilli (1994), Celluloide (1996), The Dinner (1998), The Room of the Scirocco (1998) and I Love You Eugenio (2002).

An international star, Giannini has frequently appeared in American film and TV projects like The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969), Saving Grace (1986), A Walk in the Clouds (1995), Hannibal (2001), Darkness (2002), and Man on Fire (2004), among many others. More recently, he appeared as Rene Mathis in the James Bond film Casino Royale (2006) and has signed on to appear in the follow-up.

An accomplished dubber, Giannini has supplied his voice for numerous international stars like Jack Nicholson, Gerard Depardieu, Dustin Hoffman, Al Pacino, Ian McKellen and Michael Douglas in films released in the Italian market. For his bravura dubbing of Jack Nicholson in The Shining, he earned praise from Stanley Kubric.

As for his personal life, Giannini and ex-wife Livia Giampalmo have two children, actor Adriano Giannini (born 1971) and Lorenzo (born 1967).


Electronic

Childhood and Family:

In La Spezia, Italy, Giancarlo Giannini was born on August 1, 1942. He spent much of his youth studying in Naples, Italy, where he received a degree in electrical engineering. At age 18, Giancarlo relocated to Rome to attend the Academy of Dramatic Art D’Amico.

Giancarlo was married to Livia Giampalmo from 1967 until 1975. He has two sons, Lorenzo (born 1967) and actor Adriano Giannini (born 1971).


Casino Royale’s Rene Mathis

Career:

Giancarlo Giannini turned to acting after earning his degree in electronics and made his stage debut in 1961 by portraying Puck in the production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Italy. Three years later, he starred as Romeo on Zeffirelli’s stage production of “Romeo and Juliet.” Giannini moved on to the big screen with starring roles in Libido (1965), a Freudian psychological thriller, and Fango sulla Metropoli (1965). The same year, he also made his television debut in the TV miniseries “David Copperfield,” made by the Italian National TV company RAI.

It was in 1966 that Giannini began his fruitful lifetime partnership with the legendary Italian woman-director Lina Wertmuller, who cast him in the 1966 stage production of “Two and Two Are No Longer Four.” They soon reunited for a 1966 movie, Rita la Zanzara/Rita the Mosquito, and in 1969, Giannini appeared in an American film for the first time in the Anthony Quinn vehicle The Secret of Santa Vittoria, as an Italian helping hide wine from the Nazis.

In 1972, Giannini and Wertmuller’s affiliation paid off as the actor took home a David di Donatello and an Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists’ Silver Ribbon for Best Actor for his work in Wertmuller’s The Seduction of Mimi. The actor continued to build a good reputation by picking up a Best Actor Cannes Film Festival for his bright portrayal of peasant Tonino, who prepares to murder dictator Mussolini, in the 1973 film d’amore e d’anarchia, (Love and Anarchy), also directed by Wertmuller. The same year, he also scored success as the star of Alberto Lattuada’s Sono stato io! (I Did It), which earned the actor a San Sebastián International Film Festival for Best Actor.

After starring as a sailor in Wertmuller’s Travolti da un insolito destino nell’azzurro mare d’agosto (Swept Away, 1974), which became a significant achievement for both Giannini and Wertmuller internationally, Giannini gained international stardom as a survivor of a concentration camp in Wertmuller’s Pasqualino Settebellezze (Seven Beauties, 1975), from which he was nominated for a Best Actor in a Leading Role (Oscar). He rounded out the decade by making seven other movies, including The Innocent (1976), A Night Full of Rain (1978), Life Is Beautiful (1979) and A Trip with Anita (1979).

Giannini was cast in the starring role of a Jewish musician who is arrested by the Nazis in Fassbinder’s masterpiece Lili Marleen (1981), costarred in the English-language film American Dreamer (1984), nabbed a David di Donatello for Best Actor for his performance in Nanny Loy’s Mi manda Picone (1984), played the supplier of wisdom for pope-in-disguise Tom Conti in the American film Saving Grace (1986) and teamed up with Joan Collins in the CBS miniseries “Sins” (1986). In 1987, Giannini made his motion picture directorial debut with Ternosecco, a comedy he also wrote and starred in opposite Victoria Abril, and two years later, he appeared as the father in Francis Ford Coppola’s Life With Zoe segment of New York Stories.

The actor maintained his busy schedule throughout the 1990s by working in film and television. He appeared with John Candy and James Belushi in the unmemorable comedy film Once Upon a Crime (1992), portrayed Laban, the father-in-law of the title character, in the TNT miniseries “Jacob” (1994), costarred with Keanu Reeves as his winemaker father-in-law in A Walk in the Clouds (1995) and acted in the sci-fi thriller Mimic (1997). He also collected several awards for his roles in Come due coccodrilli (1994) and Celluloide (1996), and two Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists for performances in Cena, La (The Dinner, 1998) and Stanza dello scirocco, La (The Room of the Scirocco, 1998).

After playing the Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV in the miniseries “Dune” (2000), Giannini was cast as Inspector Pazzi in Hannibal (2001), the sequel to Silence of the Lambs, and earned an Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists’ Silver Ribbon for Best Supporting actor for his performance, and picked up a David di Donatello and a Newport Beach Film Festival for his outstanding starring role in 2002’s Ti voglio bene Eugenio (I Love You Eugenio). Next, he starred with Lena Olin and Anna Paquin in the horror movie Darkness (2002), worked with Maggie Smith in the HBO special My House in Umbria (2003), appeared with Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning in Tony Scott’s Man of Fire (2004) and played Rene Mathis in Casino Royale (2006), the 21st James Bond film directed by Martin Campbell and starring Daniel Craig as 007.

Recently costarring in the film Estrenando sueños (2007), Giannini will soon star opposite Gérard Depardieu and Don Johnson in the Italian thriller movie Bastardi (2007). He is also set to play Turi Leofonte in the upcoming action film Milano-Palermo: il ritorno (2007), with Raoul Bova.

In addition to his strong acting career, Giannini also made a name for himself as an international dubber. He has dubbed a number of international stars in movies released in the Italian market, including Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Michael Douglas, Gerard Depardieu, Dustin Hoffman and Ian McKellen, among others. He achieved praise from Stanley Kubric for his dubbing of Jack Nicholson in the Italian version of The Shining.


Awards:

- Milan International Film Festival: Lifetime Achievement, 2002
- Flaiano International: Career- Cinema, 2002
- Newport Beach Film Festival: Jury Award, Feature Film - Best Actor, Ti voglio bene Eugenio, 2002
- David di Donatello: Best Actor, Ti voglio bene Eugenio (I Love You Eugenio), 2002
- Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists: Silver Ribbon, Best Supporting Actor, Hannibal, 2001
- David di Donatello: Golden Plate 2000, 2000
- Los Angeles Italian Film: Outstanding Achievement-Film, 1999
- Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists: Silver Ribbon, Best Actor, Stanza dello scirocco, La, 1999
- Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists: Best Supporting Actor, Cena, La, 1999
- David di Donatello: Best Actor, Celluloide, 1996
- David di Donatello: Best Supporting Actor, Come due coccodrilli, 1995
- Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists: Best Dubbing, Male, Carlito’s Way, 1994
- David di Donatello: Best Actor, Mi manda Picone, 1984
- San Sebastián International Film Festival: Best Actor, Sono stato io! (I Did It), 1973
- Cannes Film Festival: Best Actor, Film d’amore e d’anarchia, ovvero ‘stamattina alle 10 in via dei Fiori nella nota casa di tolleranza...’ (Love and Anarchy), 1973
- Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists: Silver Ribbon, Best Actor, Mimì metallurgico ferito nell’onore (The Seduction of Mimi), 1973
- David di Donatello: Best Actor, Mimì metallurgico ferito nell’onore (The Seduction of Mimi), 1972