Giancarlo Giannini


Giancarlo Giannini is an Italian actor, voice actor, director and screenwriter. He won a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in Love and Anarchy and received an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination for his performance in Seven Beauties.

Biography

Early life

Giannini was born in La Spezia and he spent most of his childhood in the settlement of Pitelli. In 1952, Giannini and his family moved to Naples where he received a diploma in electronic engineering at the Alessandro Volta Technological State Technical Institute. During his teen years, he moved to Rome and studied at the Silvio d’Amico Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his stage debut at the age of 18.

Acting career

Giannini made his film debut in a small part in I criminali della metropoli in 1965. He appeared in supporting roles in Anzio and The Secret of Santa Vittoria, and starred in the original version of Swept Away. In 1967, he was a special guest on an episode of Mina's TV show "Sabato Sera". In 1971, he appeared in E le stelle stanno a guardare, a television adaptation of A. J. Cronin's novel, The Stars Look Down.
Giannini won a Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in Love and Anarchy. In 1976, he starred in Seven Beauties, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor. Giannini is known for his starring roles in films directed by Lina Wertmüller. In addition to Seven Beauties and Swept Away, he also appeared in The Seduction of Mimi, Love and Anarchy, A Night Full of Rain, and Francesca e Nunziata.
Giannini has also achieved some international success. His fluency in English has brought him a number of featured roles in Hollywood productions, most notably as Inspector Pazzi in Hannibal. He also appeared in Man on Fire. Giannini played Alberto Aragón in A Walk in the Clouds in 1995, and Emperor Shaddam IV in the 2000 Dune miniseries. In 2002, he starred in the horror film Darkness. He later portrayed French agent René Mathis in the James Bond films Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

Voice acting career

Giannini has had a successful career as a voice actor and dubber. He helped with the foundation of the :it:Cine Video Doppiatori|C.V.D. along with Renato Turi, Corrado Gaipa, Valeria Valeri, Oreste Lionello, Wanda Tettoni and other dubbers.
Giannini is the official Italian voice dubber of Al Pacino. Both he and Ferruccio Amendola were the primary dubbers of Pacino until Amendola's death in 2001 when Giannini became the sole voice dubber. He also dubbed Jack Nicholson's voice as Jack Torrance in the Italian release of The Shining and the Joker in Batman and Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko in Wall Street and the as well as dubbing other actors such as Dustin Hoffman, Gérard Depardieu, Ryan O'Neal, Jeremy Irons, Mel Gibson, Tim Allen, Leonard Whiting and Ian McKellen in some of their work.
In Giannini’s animated roles, he voiced Carl Fredricksen in the Italian dub of the Pixar film Up. He also provided the Italian voice of Raul Menendez in the Call of Duty game franchise. Outside of dubbing, he provided a voice role in the 2001 Italian animated film Momo in which he voiced the main antagonist.

Other ventures

Aside from acting, Giannini takes up inventing as a hobby. Some of the gadgets he designed were used in the 1992 film Toys starring Robin Williams. Giannini also collaborated with :it:Gabriella Greison|Gabriella Greison on the book Sono ancora un bambino which was published by Longanesi in 2014. A year later, he received the :it:Premio Cesare Pavese|Premio Cesare Pavese.

Personal life

From 1967 until 1975, Giannini was married to actress Livia Giampalmo and they had two children. Their eldest son was Lorenzo, who died in 1987 from an aneurysm shortly before his 20th birthday. Their second-born son was actor Adriano Giannini, who played his father's role in the 2002 remake of Swept Away. Since 1983, he has been married to Eurilla del Bono and they have two sons, Emanuele and Francesco who are musicians.
In 2009, Giannini received a star on the Italian Walk of Fame in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He is currently set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2021.

Selected filmography

Films

Animation