Rossano Brazzi

Rossano Brazzi (1954)

Rossano Brazzi (born September 18, 1916 in Bologna , † December 24, 1994 in Rome ) was an Italian actor who was in great demand internationally, especially in the 1950s.

Life

Brazzi was born in Bologna in 1916 as the son of a shoemaker and lived from 1920 with his parents Adelmo and Maria Ghedini Brazzi and with his younger siblings Oscar and Franca in Florence , where he later studied law at the University of San Marco . When he finished his studies in 1937, his father, who now owned a leather factory, sent him to a friend in Rome to gain his first practical experience as a lawyer. There he was hired by a client for a theater performance because of his good looks. Brazzi eventually gave up his real job and joined an acting company. As a singer he gained his first stage experience at a young age.

He first appeared in a film in 1938. Many small roles in Italian films followed. In 1943 he was also seen in the German crime film Back at the side of Zarah Leander and Hans Stüwe . In 1949 he made his Hollywood debut in Mervyn LeRoy's Little Brave Jo as a German professor alongside June Allyson and Elizabeth Taylor . However, his international breakthrough came in 1954 with Jean Negulesco's Three Coins in the Well and Joseph L. Mankiewicz 's The Barefoot Countess next to Ava Gardner and Humphrey Bogart . As is so often the case, in Dream of My Life (1955) he played an Italian, with whom Katharine Hepburn fell in love as a middle-aged woman on her trip to Venice .

Brazzi continued to perform on stage until the mid-1950s. In 1945 he played La cena delle beffe in Florence and in 1946 was engaged in Ettore Giannini's ensemble alongside Andreina Pagnani and Carlo Ninchi , with whom he a. a. Eugene O'Neill's Doomed Love interpreted.

In 1966 and 1968 he directed three films, two of them under the pseudonym Edward Ross; however, none was granted a great success. In the late 1960s to the mid 1970s he also starred in a number of films directed by his brother Oscar Brazzi . In 1981 he received a nomination for the Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actor in Io e Caterina . From the mid-1960s onwards, he no longer showed any ambitions to appear in artistic films and was also hired for below-average films and television works.

From 1940 on, Brazzi was married to the Italian baroness Lidia Bartolini. The marriage lasted until her death in 1981. In 1984 he married the German Ilse Fischer. Both marriages remained childless. However, Brazzi had an illegitimate son, who emerged in 1955 from an affair with Llewella Humphreys, daughter of mobster Murray Humphreys, and who was named George Brady (Brady as the anglicized form of Brazzi).

Rossano Brazzi died on Christmas Eve 1994 at the age of 78 in Rome of a virus in the nervous system . His grave is on the Cimitero Flaminio in Rome.

Filmography (selection)

1940: The glass bridge (Il ponte di vetro)
1941: Tosca
1941: Rigoletto
1942: Caravan (Una signora dell'Ovest)
1943: then
1943: Attention, admission (Silenzio, si gira!)
1946: Black Eagle (Aquila Nera)
1947: Eleonora Duse
1947: Storms of Passion (Furia)
1947: The white devil (Il diavolo bianco)
1949: Little Brave Jo (Little Women )
1949: Vulcano (Vulcano)
1950: Inexorable love (Gli inesorabili)

1950: Toselli Serenade (Romanzo d'amore)

1950: La corona negra

1951: The Revenge of the Black Eagle (La vendetta di Aquila Nera)

1952: Genoveva (La leggenda di Genoveffa)

1952: The woman who invented love (La donna che inventò l'amore)

1952: Anna and the executioner (Il boia di Lilla)

1952: The Sword of the Musketeers (Il filgio di Lagardere)

1954: The flesh and the devil (La Chair et le diable)

1954: Three Coins in the Fountain (Three Coins in the Fountain)

1954: The Barefoot Countess (The Barefoot Contessa)

1954: Angela the Devil (Angela)

1955: Apartment with every comfort (Gli ultimi cinque minuti)

1955: Dream of my Life (Summertime)

1956: Never Marry in Monte Carlo (Loser Takes All)

1957: Esther Costello (The Story of Esther Costello)

1957: The Last Chord (Interlude)

1957: The City of the Lost (Legend of the Lost)

1958: South Pacific

1958: A certain smile (A Certain Smile)

1959: French beds (Count Your Blessings)

1960: Archimedes - the lion of Syracuse (L'assedio di Siracusa)

1960: Austerlitz - splendor of an imperial crown (Austerlitz)

1962: Light in the Piazza (Light in the Piazza)

1962: Adventure in Rome (Rome Adventure)

1962: The red one

1962: The Four Truths (Les Quatre vérités)

1962: Mondo Cane (documentary)

1963: The diabolical intrigue (L'intrigo)

1964: The girl on loan (La ragazza in prestito)

1965: Battle of the Villa Fiorita (The Battle of the Villa Fiorita)

1965: Young skin (Un amore)

1966: Santa Claus in Need (Il Natale che quasi non fu) (also direction and production)

1967: Bobo is the greatest (The Bobo)

1967: Woman lures seven times (Woman Times Seven)
1968: They called him King (Caccia ai violenti)
1968: Krakatoa - The Greatest Adventure of the Last Century (Krakatoa, East of Java)
1969: Salvare la faccia (also director)
1969: Charlie dusts off millions (The Italian Job)
1969: The Babe (Vita segreta di una diciottenne)
1970: Playboys and Adventurers (The Adventurers)
1971: Show me the toy of death (Il giorno del giudizio)
1972: The Great Waltz
1974: The corpse factory of Dr. Frankenstein (Terror! Il castello delle donne maledette)
1975: The Wild Pack (Il tempo degli assassini)
1978: Circus Magic (Mr. Too Little)
1978: Caribia - A film frenzy in stereophony
1978: Charlie's Angels (Charlie's Angels) (TV series, one episode)
1979: The Promise (La promessa) (TV movie)
1980: Me and Katharina (Io e Caterina)
1980: A Time for Miracles (TV movie)
1981: Barbara's Baby - Omen III (The Final Conflict)
1982: Love Boat (The Love Boat) (TV series, two episodes)
1983: Hart to Hart (TV series, an episode)
1984: Palace of the Winds (The Far Paviliosn) (TV series)
1984: Fear City - Manhattan 2 a.m. (Fear City)
1985: Final Justice
1985: The House of the Cursed (7 Hyden Park - La casa maledetta)
1988: Devil's Hill (La collina del diavolo) (TV movie)
1988: Russicum (Russicum, i giorni del diavolo)

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Rossano Brazzi . In: Roberto Chiti, Enrico Lancia, Andrea Orbicciani, Roberto Poppi: Dizionario del cinema italiano. Gli attori . Rom, Gremese 1998, pp. 79-81.
^ Roberto Poppi: Dizionario del cinema italiano: I Registi . Gremese 2002, p. 72.
↑ Gus Russo: The Outfit: The Role Of Chicago's Underworld In The Shaping Of Modern America. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009, ISBN 1-58234-176-1 , p. 320.

personal data
SURNAME	Brazzi, Rossano
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Ross, Edward
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian actor
DATE OF BIRTH	September 18, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH	Bologna , Italy
DATE OF DEATH	December 24, 1994
Place of death	Rome , Italy

[1] Rossano Brazzi . In: Roberto Chiti, Enrico Lancia, Andrea Orbicciani, Roberto Poppi: Dizionario del cinema italiano. Gli attori . Rom, Gremese 1998, pp. 79-81.

[2] Roberto Poppi: Dizionario del cinema italiano: I Registi . Gremese 2002, p. 72.

[3] Gus Russo: The Outfit: The Role Of Chicago's Underworld In The Shaping Of Modern America. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2009, ISBN 1-58234-176-1 , p. 320.