- Born
- Died
- Birth nameVittorio Gassmann
- Nicknames
- Il Mattatore
- The Sir Laurence Olivier of Italy
- Height6′ 1¾″ (1.87 m)
- Vittorio Gassman studied theatre in his youth and was quite a good basketball player. He debuted on stage in 1943 and soon felt home in all classical theatre works. Since 1946 he also worked at the movies and his first big role there was the criminal in Bitter Rice (1949). This fixed him to his main parts: The ambiguous gentleman inflicting pain and pleasure at the same time. He also participated in the Italian comedies and in American movies but the latter with only minor success. As a homage to his passion for the theatre he directed a cinema version of the play Kean: Genius or Scoundrel (1957).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Volker Boehm
- His grandfather Karl Gassman ran a theater in Karlsruhe. In 1928 the family settled in Rome, which became Gassman's permanent home. With the goal of becoming a journalist, he initially began studying law there. However, he quickly moved to the Roman "Accademia d'Arte Drammatica" in 1941/42 to train in the art of acting. In 1943 Gassman married the actress Nora Ricci, from whom he separated again in 1952 to marry Shelley Winters. However, the second marriage only lasted two years. After his debut in 1943 with a Milan theater company, Gassman became one of the most famous theater actors in Italy, shining on stage under the direction of Luchino Visconti, among others. In 1951 he founded the "Compagnia del teatro di arte italiano" together with Luigi Squarzina. In 1954 he toured Latin America with his theater troupe. In addition to his portrayals of "Hamlet", "Othello", "Oedipus Rex", "Richard III." Among other things, in major roles, Gassman increasingly began to work as a director and screenwriter himself.
He traveled through Italy with a tent theater and created a kind of popular theater in numerous performances. In 1980 he founded his own theater school, "La Bottega Teatrale", which he ran in Florence until his death and for which he was able to recruit recognized filmmakers such as Anthony Quinn and Ettore Scola as teachers. In 1984/85 Gassman toured the USA with a solo production. In 1987 he traveled through Europe with his son Alessandro to stage a tragedy based on Pier Paolo Pasolini's script with great success. His commitment to the theater, in which he was particularly associated with Italian actors such as Dario Fo and Eduardo de Filippo, earned Gassman the award for best Italian actor four times. But it was primarily the film that brought him international success. After his film debut in "Preludio d'amore" (1946), he took on over 100 film roles.
His recognition as a film actor was initially linked to the Italian neorealismo cinema of the post-war period, for which he appeared in films such as "Riso amaro" (1949) and "Anna" (1951). In 1958 he was awarded the best film actor in Italy. Later, "La famiglia" (1987), directed by Ettore Scola, contributed to his international cinema success. There were also various engagements in television shows and films. Gassman also tried his hand as a successful film director and received numerous Italian and international film and theater awards. In 1996 he was awarded the Golden Globe and the Golden Lion for his life's work. The director was most recently married to Diletta D'Andrea in 1970 and had four children, two of whom, Paola and Alessandro, had now made a name for themselves in the Italian acting scene.
Vittorio Gassman died on June 29, 2000 in Rome.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth
- SpousesDiletta D'Andrea(December 7, 1970 - June 29, 2000) (his death, 1 child)Shelley Winters(April 28, 1952 - June 2, 1954) (divorced, 1 child)Nora Ricci(June 1943 - April 16, 1967) (annulled, 1 child)
- Children
- ParentsHeinrich GassmannLuisa Ambron
- RelativesTommaso Pagliai(Grandchild)Leo Gassman(Grandchild)
- Powerful, versatile voice
- The standard joke on him was that he had such an interesting, flexible voice (and such an outstanding acting ability) that he could have made everything he read entertaining and intense. In mid-90s, a satirical show on Italy national TV gave him a 2 minutes space (named "Gassman Legge", literally "Gassman Reads") where he just "acted" few lines from banal, utterly non-poetic texts, e.g. the Yellow Pages, a blood test report, a telephone bill, the classifieds page in a local newspaper and so on. The segment was a success.
- His mother, Luisa Ambron, from Pisa, Tuscany, was an Italian Jew. His father, Heinrich Gassmann, was German, from Karlsruhe, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
- In his public appearances, he often criticized moderated cultural positions and gained some enemies in the world of art for his frank judgments.
- His mother discouraged him from becoming a lawyer so he took up acting instead.
- Father of actress Paola Gassman, doctor Vittoria Gassman, actor Alessandro Gassmann and Jacopo Gassman, grandfather of assistant director Tommaso Pagliai.
- No-one should die. That's the only mistake God ever made.
- Men don't understand anything about women and women don't understand anything about men. And it's better that way.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content