Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni[a]Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI (26 September 1924[4][5] – 19 December 1996) was an Italianactor. He is generally regarded as one of Italy's most iconic male performers of the 20th-century, who played leading roles for many of the country's top directors, in a career spanning 147 films between 1939 and 1996, garnering many international honours including twoBAFTA Awards, two Best Actor awards at theVenice andCannes film festivals, twoGolden Globes, and threeAcademy Award nominations.
Born inFontana Liri (province of Frosinone,Lazio,IT) and raised inTurin andRome, Mastroianni 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 comedyBig Deal on Madonna Street (1959). He became an international celebrity through his collaborations with directorFederico Fellini, first as a disillusioned tabloid columnist inLa Dolce Vita (1960), then as a creatively-stifled filmmaker in8½ (1963). Excelling in both dramatic and comedic roles,[6] he formed a notable on-screen duo with actress andsex symbolSophia Loren, co-starring with her in eleven films between 1954 and 1994.[7]
Despite international acclaim, Mastroianni largely shunned Hollywood, and remained a quintessentially Italian thespian for the majority of his career.[8] He was the first actor to receive anAcademy Award nomination for a non-English language performance, and was nominated forBest Actor three times –Divorce Italian Style (1961),A Special Day (1977), andDark Eyes (1987). He was one of only three actors, the others beingJack Lemmon andDean Stockwell, to win the prestigiousCannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor twice. Mastroianni's contributions to Italian art and culture saw him receive multiple civil honours, including theOrder of Merit of the Italian Republic, the highest-ranking knighthood of the country.[9]
Mastroianni made his screen debut as an uncredited extra inMarionette (1939) when he was fourteen,[16] and made intermittent minor film appearances until landing his first big role inAtto d'accusa (1951).[17] Within a decade he became a major international celebrity, starring inBig Deal on Madonna Street (1958);[18] and inFederico Fellini'sLa Dolce Vita (1960) playing a disillusioned and self-loathing tabloid columnist who spends his days and nights exploring Rome's decadent high society.[19] Mastroianni followedLa Dolce Vita with another signature role, that of a film director who, amidst self-doubt and troubled love affairs, finds himself in a creative block while making a film in Fellini's8½ (1963).[20]
Mastroianni marriedFlora Carabella on 12 August 1950.[26] They had one daughter together, Barbara (1951–2018),[27] and informally separated in 1964 because of his affairs with younger women.[26][28] Mastroianni's first serious relationship after the separation was withFaye Dunaway, his co-star inA Place for Lovers (1968). Dunaway wanted to marry and have children, but Mastroianni, aCatholic, refused to divorce Carabella.[26] In 1970, after more than two years of waiting for Mastroianni to change his mind, Dunaway left him.[26] Mastroianni told a reporter forPeople magazine in 1987 that he never got over the breakup. "She was the woman I loved the most," he said. "I'll always be sorry to have lost her. I was whole with her for the first time in my life."[29] In her 1995 autobiographyLooking for Gatsby, Dunaway wrote: "I wish to this day it had worked out."[30] In the 2024 documentaryFaye, she described him as the love of her life.[31]
After the break up with Dunaway, Mastroianni began a relationship with French actressCatherine Deneuve,[32] who was nearly 20 years his junior. They lived together for four years during the 1970s and had a daughter,Chiara Mastroianni (born 28 May 1972). During their time together the couple made four films:It Only Happens to Others (1971),La cagna (1972),A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973) andDon't Touch the White Woman! (1974). After Mastroianni and Deneuve broke up, his estranged wife Carabella reportedly offered to adopt Chiara because her parents' busy careers kept them away from her so often. Deneuve adamantly refused.[33]
Mastroianni died ofpancreatic cancer on 19 December 1996 at the age of 72.[35] Both of his daughters, as well as Deneuve and Tatò, were at his bedside.[26] TheTrevi Fountain in Rome, associated with his role in Fellini'sLa Dolce Vita, was symbolically turned off and draped in black as a tribute.[36][37] A funeral was held at theChurch of St. Sulpice inSaint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris 20 December 1996 before his remains were transferred to Rome where a second ceremony took place at the city hall on 22 December before he was interred in his family vault inVerano Cemetery.[38][39]
At the1997 Venice Film Festival, Chiara, Carabella, and Deneuve tried to block the screening of Tatò's four-hour documentary,Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember. The festival refused and the film was shown.[40] The three women reportedly tried to do the same thing at Cannes. Tatò said Mastroianni had willed her all rights to his image.[40]
^Biagi, Enzo (1996).La bella vita : Marcello Mastroianni racconta (in Italian). Rome: RAI-ERI.ISBN88-586-5231-2.OCLC652408968.; about the name of the editor in 1996:"ERI",treccani.it (in Italian), retrieved26 October 2024
