Giancarlo Giannini - Details

GIANCARLO GIANNINI is a star whose international reputation proclaims him one of Italy’s greatest romantic leading men. But the source of his beguiling charm has always been pathos and humor. He was cunning and naughty in Swept Away, assured yet frantic in The Seduction of Mimi, broken and anguished in Seven Beauties.

Born in La Spezia, Italy, Giannini spent his youth in Naples. He attended the National Academy of Dramatic Art in 1961 and made his debut on stage the following year as Puck in Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream," followed by performances in "The Dream," "Memories of a Lady Friend" and "Romeo and Juliet." He began his long association with Lina Wertmuller while appearing in her play "Two and Two Don’t Make Four" in the early ‘60s and later starred in most of her films.

In 1973, he won the Golden Palm Best Actor Award at Cannes for Love and Anarchy. He received critical praise and an Oscar® nomination for his performance in Seven Beauties as Pasqualino, a concentration camp inmate who suffers humiliation and degradation in a desperate effort to survive. He later appeared in Wertmuller’s American directorial debut, A Night Full of Rain and today he continues to act in the Lina Wertmuller film Francesca and Nunziata in the male lead role opposite Sofia Loren. This film is being produced by Solaris Film Srl for Mediaset TV.

Giannini’s other motion picture credits include Once Upon a Crime, Palermo Milano One Way, New York Stories, Mimic, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, Heaven Before I Die, New York Crossing, A Walk in the Clouds, Rita the Mosquito, The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Drama of Jealousy, It Was Me, The Sensual Man, Swept Away, Journey With Anita, The Innocent, Love and Blood, Lili Marleen, Picone Sent Me and Blood Red.

He recently appeared in Chiarimenti, Celluloide and The Whole Shebang