Giancarlo Giannini

Acting

Giancarlo Giannini (Italian: [dʒaŋˈkarlo dʒanˈniːni]; born 1 August 1942) is an Italian actor. He won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in Love and Anarchy (1973) and received an Academy Award nomination for Seven Beauties (1975). He is also a four-time recipient of the David di Donatello Award for Best Actor.

Giannini began his career on stage, starring in Franco Zeffirelli's productions of Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream. After appearing predominantly on television throughout the early 1960s, he had his first lead role in a film in Rita the Mosquito (1965), the first of many collaborations with filmmaker Lina Wertmüller. He rose to international stardom through Wertmüller's The Seduction of Mimi (1972), Love and Anarchy (1973), Swept Away (1974), culminating in his Oscar-nominated turn in Seven Beauties (1975).