Tall, dark, and handsome, Italian actor Cesare Danova (pronounced
Chez-a-ray Da-NO-va) was a true Renaissance man. As a boy, it appeared
he might become a professional athlete. But his family wanted him to
become a doctor. Cesare, by his own account, studied medicine with such
diligence that he suffered a nervous breakdown shortly before he was to
take his degree. While recuperating, he was sent by a friend to see
Dino De Laurentiis, the
famous Italian producer, who was so impressed that he gave Danova a
screen test. Thinking it was a joke, Danova insisted on seeing the
screen test for himself. Soon, he was cast as the lead in
Aufstand in Sibirien (1947)
(The Captain's Daughter). Thus began his career as an Italian
Errol Flynn. In almost 20 European
films, Danova played the dashing lead, riding horses, jumping through
windows, dueling, and romancing beauties such as
Gina Lollobrigida.
Known for his aristocratic bearing, he often played noblemen. The
six-foot-four Danova was also an expert athlete. A devotee of strenuous
daily workouts from age 12, Danova was a fencing champion by age 15 and
a member of the Italian National Rugby Team by age 17. In addition to
playing golf, tennis, and croquet, Danova was an amateur swimming
champion, an expert horseman and polo player, and a master archer. He
won the Robin Hood Trophy when he shot and embedded one arrow inside
another arrow within the target's bull's eye. He was also a licensed
pilot who flew his own planes (Beechcraft, Piper, Cherokee, and
Cessna).
A descendant of famed medieval artist Filippo Lippi, Danova collected
antiques and paintings. Describing himself as a fair painter, he taught
himself to draw by studying a 75-cent how-to-draw book. Danova owned a
library of over 3,000 books, each written in one of the five languages
he knew-Italian, English, Spanish, French, and German.
Danova loved the theater and appeared onstage in Rome, Venice, Spain,
New York, and Los Angeles. He was in the habit of carrying a small
leprechaun good luck charm (and a shamrock ) he'd bought in Ireland,
The actor traveled to the Emerald Isle many times. 'I love Ireland and
I go there every chance I get,' he once said.
With almost 20 European films under his belt, Danova was spotted by
MGM's head of talent in the German-backed 'Don Giovanni'(1955), his
first film shown in the U.S. Impressed, the studio signed Danova to a
long-term contract in June of 1956, and he traded his flourishing
career in Europe for Hollywood. Rumors abounded that MGM had found its
Ben-Hur (a role coveted by
Tony Curtis and
Kirk Douglas, among others) for the
upcoming super-epic remake by director
William Wyler. The studio said it expected
big things from Danova but that it was too soon to say whether he'd
play the lead until he'd perfected his English. Still, it was no secret
that Danova had been brought to America by Wyler to be groomed for the
lead role. Hollywood columnist Bob Thomas referred to Danova as the
'new Italian sensation' and others compared him to
'Tyrone Power (I)' and
Robert Taylor, a glamour boy to
fill the shoes of Rudolph Valentino.
When Danova arrived, he didn't speak English and insisted on not
learning his lines by rote. He spent the next six months learning the
language, a not-terribly-difficult feat for a man with a self-professed
love of words who already spoke four languages. With a background in
classical acting, and his newfound English fluency, Danova was ready
for his big break. But just as filming was to get underway in March,
1957, Wyler decided he didn't want an actor with an accent playing
Ben Hur (1959) and, instead, chose
Charlton Heston (who would win the best
actor Oscar for the role). Danova was shocked - the role would almost
certainly have made him an international star.
Although Wyler didn't want Danova, MGM did. The studio said it expected
important things from him when they signed him. But now they had no
definite alternative plans for him. Danova's career idled for the next
two years. MGM kept him on its payroll, paying him well for doing
nothing at all. Danova admitted that, although he was not bitter, the
lack of work day after day was enough to drive him crazy. He stayed
busy reading, writing, taking diction lessons, building furniture, and
playing with his two small sons, Fabrizio and Marco, by English actress
Pamela Matthews, whom he had wed
in 1955.
Finally, with MGM's consent, Danova made his American debut in Los
Angeles opposite Paul Muni in a
musical version of
Menschen im Hotel (1932). When it flopped,
he traveled to Cuba to appear in
Catch Me If You Can (1959), a
film starring Gilbert Roland and
Dina Merrill. Financed by
soon-to-be-deposed Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista, it was apparently
never released. Danova's American film debut was as the lover of
Leslie Caron in the now-forgotten
Über den Gassen von Nizza (1959),
starring Henry Fonda.
When Danova first came to America, he was quoted as saying that he
wished to lose his accent so that he would be able to play the role he
most wanted, that of an American cowboy. In 1958, he got his wish. He
made his American television debut in a first-season episode of
Westlich von Santa Fe (1958) called
'Duel of Honor,' the first of three appearances. United Press
International summed up Danova's reversal of fortune this way:
"Televiewers will have the opportunity to see the man who almost played
the title role in Ben Hur (1959) - but in
place of a chariot he'll be bouncing around in a stage coach...Danova,
a ruggedly handsome Italian import, is making his American debut in
ABC-TV's Westlich von Santa Fe (1958).
It's quite a comedown from his original intent to star in the most
expensive movie in history."
Cesare Danova got a second chance at stardom when he was cast as
Cleopatra's court advisor, Apollodorus, in the
Cleopatra (1963), starring
Elizabeth Taylor. As originally
scripted, Danova's character was to be Cleopatra's lover, servicing her
when she wasn't being romanced by costars
Rex Harrison and
Richard Burton. "I'm sort of the
third man-the real lover," Danova was quoted as saying.
But then the torrid, real-life love affair between
Elizabeth Taylor and
Richard Burton became a worldwide
media sensation. The resulting scandal, since both stars were married
but not to each other, generated badly needed public interest in the
troubled, bloated, fantastically over-budget production. Le Scandale
(as the French dubbed it) upstaged everything about the film not
related to Taylor & Burton. As a result, Danova's performance was now a
distraction and most of it was cut, dashing predictions that Danova
"should be in big demand after this one."
In October 1963, not quite two-and-a-half months after Cleopatra's
release, Pamela and Cesare Danova were divorced. The Associated Press
headline stated merely: Wife Divorces Cleopatra Slave.
In his early years in America, Danova turned down the opportunity to
appear as a series regular on TV for fear of being typecast and locked
out of movies altogether. When he finally accepted, it was for the WWII
ensemble cast
Garrison's Gorillas (1967),
a show patterned somewhat after
Das dreckige Dutzend (1967). Danova
said he accepted because he was the first to be cast and his was the
best part. He appeared as actor, a con man, expert at disguises and
spreading disinformation behind the lines among the Nazis. Although he
took pains to distinguish the two roles, Danova's character was
obviously similar to that played by TV contemporary
Martin Landau on
Kobra, übernehmen Sie (1966).
In any event,
Garrison's Gorillas (1967)
did not last beyond the 1967-1968 season.
In time, as movie roles became fewer, Danova did a great deal of
television work. Two of his most memorable later screen roles (and the
ones for which he is best remembered) were as Mafia Don Giovanni Cappa
in Hexenkessel (1973), directed by
Martin Scorsese, and as corrupt mayor
Carmine DePasto in
Ich glaub', mich tritt ein Pferd (1978).
Cesare Danova died of a heart attack on March 19, 1992, shortly after
his 66th birthday, during a meeting of the Foreign Language Film
committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS),
at its Los Angeles headquarters.
