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Marcello
Mastroianni
Mastroianni,
Marcello (1924-1996), Italian
film actor, who won international
renown. Mastroianni was born in
Fontana Liri. He acted as an
extra in late-1940s Italian films
and then as a member of the
theatre company of Italian
director Luchino Visconti. His
most notable films of the 1950s
include Le Notti Bianche (1957;
White Nights) and I Soliti Ignoti
(1958; Persons Unknown). In 1960
he became a sensation in La Dolce
Vita, by Italian director
Federico Fellini, playing a
journalist in Rome. In it he
defined a new, modern screen
hero: a likeable character who,
while never actively pursuing
corruption, finally lacks the
energy to resist betraying his
own best instincts.
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Mastroianni
worked for the first time with director
Michelangelo Antonioni in La Notte (1961;
The Night), but his association with
Fellini was fixed indelibly when he played
the director's alter ego in Otto e Mezzo
(1963; 81). Mastroianni's comedic talents
also buoyed his career; he won his first
Academy Award (Oscar) nomination-rare for
a foreign-language actor-for his role in
Divorzio all'Italiano (Divorce Italian
Style), a 1962 comedy. He acted in a wide
range of films, including sentimental
vehicles in which he starred opposite
Sophia Loren (Ieri, Oggi, Domani, 1963;
Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, and
Matrimonio all'Italiana, 1964; Marriage
Italian Style) and occasional
English-language projects (A Place for
Lovers, 1969; Used People, 1992). He was
nominated for Academy Awards again on two
occasions-for Una Giornata Particolare
(1977; A Special Day) and Otchi Tchornyia
(1987; Dark Eyes)-and was reunited with
Fellini for La Città delle Donne
(1981; City of Women), Ginger and Fred
(1986), and Intervista (1987).
Mastroianni
continued to be in demand with the world's
top directors, such as Ettore Scola (1988;
Splendor), Theodorus Angelopolous (Meteoro
Vima tou Pelargou, 1991; The Suspended
Stride of the Stork), Robert Altman
(Prêt-à-Porter, 1994),
Michelangelo Antonioni (Par-delà
les Nuages, 1995; Beyond the Clouds), and
Raoul Ruiz (Trois Vies et une Seule Mort,
1996; Three Lives and Only One Death). He
died in Paris on December 19,
1996.
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