Vittorio Gassman (Italian pronunciation: [vitˈtɔːrjo ˈɡazman]; born Gassmann; 1 September 1922 – 29 June 2000), popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian actor, director, and screenwriter.
He is considered one of the greatest Italian actors, whose career includes both important productions as well as dozens of divertissements.
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Early life
Gassman was born in Genoa to a German father, Heinrich Gassmann (an engineer from Karlsruhe), and an Italian Jewish mother, Luisa Ambron, born in Pisa. While still very young, he moved to Rome, where he studied at the Silvio D'Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Career
Gassman's stage debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemi's La Nemica. He then moved to Rome and acted at the Teatro Eliseo joining Tino Carraro and Ernesto Calindri in a stage company that remained famous for some time; with them he acted in a range of plays from bourgeois comedy to sophisticated intellectual theatre. In 1946, he made his film debut in Preludio d'amore, while only one year later he appeared in five films. In 1948, he played in Bitter Rice.
It was with Luchino Visconti's company that Gassman achieved his mature successes, together with Paolo Stoppa, Rina Morelli and Paola Borboni. He played Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams' Un tram che si chiama Desiderio (A Streetcar Named Desire), as well as in Come vi piace (As You Like It) by Shakespeare and Oreste (by Vittorio Alfieri). He joined the Teatro Nazionale with Tommaso Salvini, Massimo Girotti, Arnoldo Foà to create a successful Peer Gynt (by Henrik Ibsen). With Luigi Squarzina in 1952 he co-founded and co-directed the Teatro d'Arte Italiano, producing the first complete version of Hamlet in Italy, followed by rare works such as Seneca's Thyestes and Aeschylus's The Persians.
In 1956, Gassman played the title role in a production of Othello. He was so well received by his acting in the television series entitled Il Mattatore (Spotlight Chaser) that "Il Mattatore" became the nickname that accompanied him for the rest of his life. Gassman's debut in the commedia all'italiana genre was rather accidental, in Mario Monicelli's Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). The Istituto Italiano di Cultura in London describes the film as "considered among the masterpieces of Italian cinema … The careers of both Gassman and Mastroianni were considerably helped by the success of the film, Gassman in particular, since before this point he was not deemed suitable for comedic roles."
Subsequent acclaimed films featuring Gassman include: The Easy Life (1962), The Great War (1962), I mostri (1963), For Love and Gold (1966), Scent of a Woman (1974) and We All Loved Each Other So Much (1974).
He directed Adelchi, a lesser-known work by Alessandro Manzoni. Gassman brought this production to half a million spectators, crossing Italy with his Teatro Popolare Itinerante (a newer edition of the famous Carro di Tespi). His productions have included many of the famous authors and playwrights of the 20th century, with repeated returns to the classics of Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky and the Greek tragicians. He also founded a theatre school in Florence (Bottega Teatrale di Firenze), which educated many of the more talented actors of the current generation of Italian thespians.
Personal life
Gassman married three times, all to actresses: Nora Ricci (with whom he had Paola, an actress and wife of Ugo Pagliai); Shelley Winters (mother of his daughter Vittoria); and Diletta D'Andrea (mother of his son Jacopo).
While rehearsing Hamlet, he began an affair with Anna Maria Ferrero, his 16-year-old Ophelia, which ended his marriage to Winters. He and Winters were forced to work together on Mambo just as their marriage was unraveling, providing fodder for tabloids all over the world.
From 1964 to 1968 he was the partner of French actress Juliette Mayniel (mother of his son Alessandro, also an actor). Through Alessandro, he is the grandfather of singer-songwriter Leo Gassmann.
Gassman suffered from bipolar disorder.
Death
On 29 June 2000, Gassman died of a heart attack in his sleep at his home in Rome at the age of 77. He was buried at Campo Verano.
Filmography
Director
Kean: Genius or Scoundrel (Kean - Genio e sregolatezza, 1957)
Alibi (L'alibi, 1969)
Without Family (Senza famiglia, nullatenenti cercano affetto, 1972)
Di padre in figlio (1982)
Dubbing roles
Animation
Mufasa in The Lion King (1994), dubbing James Earl Jones
Live action
Narrator in Romeo and Juliet (1968), dubbing Laurence Olivier
Writer
Luca de' Numeri. Novel, in 1947, won the Fogazzaro prize, published in 1965 (ed. Lerici).
Un grande avvenire dietro le spalle. Milan (1981). Longanesi & C.
Vocalizzi. Milan (1988). Longanesi & C.
Memorie del sottoscala. Milan (1990). Longanesi & C.
Audiobooks
CL 0426 – Antologia moderna – Ungaretti, Cardarelli, Palazzeschi, Montale, Quasimodo.
CL 0401 – Dante Alighieri – Inferno canto quinto.
CL 0437 – Dante Alighieri – Inferno canto XXVI.
CL 0402 – Dante Alighieri – Paradiso canto XXXIII.
CL 0457 – Elogio Olimpico – Poesie sportive.
CL 0459 – Eschilo – Coefore – with Valentina Fortunato and Maria Fabbri.
CL 0438 – Foscolo – Sepolcri.
CL 0439 – Leopardi – Poesie
CL 0440 – Leopardi – Poesie.
CL 0458 – Manzoni – Adelchi, with Carlo D'Angelo.
CL 0414 – Manzoni – Promessi sposi.
CL 0416 – Manzoni – Il cinque maggio.
CL 0441 – Mistici del '200.
CL 0470 – Pascarella – Sonetti.
CL 0417 – Pascoli – Poesie.
CL 0420 – Saba – Poesie.
CL 0415 – Shakespeare – Amleto.
CL 0427 – Sonetti attraverso i secoli.
CL 0443 – Gassman nel Mattatore prose varie.
CL 0444 – Gassman nel Mattatore prose varie.
