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 department of "Eagle Lion Films" in Rome and
joined a drama club, where he was discovered by director
Luchino Visconti. In 1957 Visconti gave
him the starring part in his
Fyodor Dostoevsky adaptation
Weiße Nächte (1957) and in
1958 he was fine as a little thief in
Mario Monicelli's comedy
Diebe haben's schwer (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
Das süße Leben (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
Achteinhalb (1963) (as a movie director who finds
himself at a point of crisis) and the touching
Ginger und 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
Die Nacht (1961), as an impotent young
man in Mauro Bolognini's
Bel Antonio (1960) , as an
exiled prince in John Boorman's
Leo, der Letzte (1970), as a traitor in
Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's
Allonsanfan (1974) and as a sensitive
homosexual in love with a housewife in
Ettore Scola's
Ein besonderer Tag (1977).
He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times, for
Scheidung auf italienisch (1961),
Ein besonderer Tag (1977),
and Schwarze Augen (1987). During the
last decade of his life he worked with directors, like
Theodoros Angelopoulos,
Bertrand Blier and
Raúl Ruiz, who gave him three excellent
parts in
Drei Leben und ein Tod (1996).
He died of pancreatic cancer in 1996.
