Marcello Mastroianni Short biography
Marcello Mastroianni (28 September 1924 – 19 December 1996) was an Italian actor, regarded as one of his country's most iconic male performers of the 20th century. He played leading roles for many of Italy's top directors in a career spanning 147 films between 1939 and 1997 and garnered many international honors including two BAFTA Awards, two Best Actor awards at the Venice and Cannes film festivals, two Golden Globes, and three Academy Award nominations.
Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, a small village in the Apennines within the Lazio province of Frosinone, and grew up in Turin and Rome. He made his film debut in 1939 at the age of 14 but did not seriously pursue acting until the 1950s when he made his critical and commercial breakthrough in the caper comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street (1959). He became an international celebrity through his collaborations with director Federico Fellini, first as a disillusioned tabloid columnist in La Dolce Vita (1960), then as a creatively-stifled filmmaker in 8½ (1963).
Mastroianni excelled in both dramatic and comedic roles, and formed a notable on-screen duo with actress and sex symbol Sophia Loren, co-starring with her in eight films between 1954 and 1994. Despite international acclaim, Mastroianni largely shunned Hollywood and remained a quintessentially Italian thespian for the majority of his career. Nonetheless, he was the first actor to receive an Academy Award nomination for a non-English language performance and was nominated for Best Actor three times – Divorce Italian Style (1961), A Special Day (1977), and Dark Eyes (1987).
Mastroianni's contributions to Italian art and culture saw him receive multiple civil honors, including the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the highest-ranking knighthood of the country.
