Rossano Brazzi (18 September 1916 – 24 December 1994)[1] was an Italian actor. He moved to Hollywood in 1948 and was propelled to international fame with his role in the English-language film Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), followed by the leading male role in David Lean's Summertime (1955), opposite Katharine Hepburn.[2] In 1958, he played the lead as Frenchman Emile De Becque in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific. His other notable English-language films include The Barefoot Contessa (1954), The Story of Esther Costello (1957), opposite Joan Crawford, Count Your Blessings (1959), Light in the Piazza (1962), and The Italian Job (1969).
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Quick Facts Born, Died ...
Rossano Brazzi |
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 Brazzi in 1952 |
| Born | 18 September 1916
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| Died | 24 December 1994(1994-12-24) (aged 78)
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| Nationality | Italian |
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| Occupation | Actor |
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| Years active | 1939–1994 |
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| Spouses | -
Lidia Bertolini
(m. 1940 ; died 1981 ) -
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Brazzi was born in Bologna, Italy, the son of Maria Ghedini and Adelmo Brazzi, an employee of the Rizzoli shoe factory. He was named after Rossano Veneto, where his father was stationed during his military service in World War I. Brazzi attended San Marco University in Florence, Italy, where he was raised from the age of four. He was a lawyer before becoming an actor and made his film debut in 1939.[1][2]
Italian Film Star
Early Italian roles included Tosca (1941), The Hero of Venice (1941), The King's Jester (1941), A Woman Has Fallen (1941) and We the Living (1942) with Alida Valli.
Brazzi was in Girl of the Golden West (1942), a Western, The Gorgon (1942), and the biopic Maria Malibran (1942). He made Back Then (1943) in Germany.
After the war, Brazzi was in The Black Eagle (1946), The Great Dawn (1947), Fury (1947), Bullet for Stefano (1947), The Courier of the King (1947), and The White Devil (1947). There was also the biopic Eleonora Duse (1948).
Brazzi moved to Hollywood and was cast as the professor in Little Women (1949). Back in Italy he made Volcano (1951) with Anna Magnani, The Fighting Men (1950), and Romanzo d'amore (1951).
This was followed by The Black Crown (1951), Tragic Spell (1951), Revenge of Black Eagle (1951), The Mistress of Treves (1951), The Woman Who Invented Love (1952), Milady and the Musketeers (1952), They Were Three Hundred (1952), Son of the Hunchback (1952), Guilt Is Not Mine (1952), and Prisoner in the Tower of Fire (1953).
Hollywood Star
Brazzi made another Hollywood film Three Coins in the Fountain (1954), partly shot in Italy, which was a huge success. He was cast in a key role in The Barefoot Contessa (1954) opposite Ava Gardner.
Brazzi starred in Angela (1955), Barrier of the Law (1955), and The Last Five Minutes (1955) then did another English language movie, Summertime (1955) with Katharine Hepburn.
After Il conte Aquila (1955) he made some British movies, Loser Takes All (1956), and The Story of Esther Costello (1957) then went to Hollywood for Interlude (1957) with June Allyson, Legend of the Lost (1957) with John Wayne and Sophia Loren, South Pacific (1958) with Mitzi Gaynor, and A Certain Smile (1958) with Joan Fontaine. Brazzi did Count Your Blessings (1959) with Deborah Kerr at MGM.
Marriages and relationships
In 1940, Brazzi married baroness Lidia Bertolini (1921–1981) to whom he was married until her death from liver cancer in 1981. The couple had no children. However, he did father a son, George Llewellyn Brady (born 24 July 1955), from a relationship with 20-year-old Llewella Humphreys (1934–1992), the daughter of American mobster Murray Humphreys. Llewella Humphreys later changed her name to Luella Brady, an anglicization of Brazzi. In 1984, Rossano Brazzi married Ilse Fischer,[3] a German national, who had been the couple's housekeeper for many years. Originally from Düsseldorf, Fischer had met Brazzi as an infatuated fan in Rome at the age of twenty-four.[4] This marriage was also childless.
Eccentricities
Brazzi was known in film production circles for a number of strange traits, including his preference for ordering off-menu and his love of karaoke. He was often referred to among contemporaries by his nickname Merlion.
Brazzi died in Rome on Christmas Eve 1994, aged 78, from a neural virus.[1]
- Il destino in tasca (1938)
- Piccolo hotel (1939)
- Processo e morte di Socrate (1939) as Simmia
- Bridge of Glass (1940) as comandante Mario Marchi
- Kean (1940) as Edmund Kean
- Ritorno (1940) as Michele Donato, alias Mac Dynar
- La fuerza bruta (1941) as Fred
- Tosca (1941) as Mario Cavaradossi
- The Hero of Venice (1941) as Guido Fuser, suo figlio
- The King's Jester (1941) as Il re Francesco Iº
- A Woman Has Fallen (1941) as Roberto Frassi
- We the Living (1942) as Leo Kovalenski
- Girl of the Golden West (1942) as William / Manuel
- The Gorgon (1942) sa Lamberto Finquinaldo
- I due Foscari (1942) as Jacopo Foscari
- Piazza San Sepolcro (1942)
- Maria Malibran (1943) as Carlo de Beriot
- Back Then (1943) as Pablo, Radrennfahrer und Clown
- Il treno crociato (1943) as Il tenente Alberto Lauri
- Silenzio, si gira! (1943) as Andrea Corsi
- The Ten Commandments (1945) (segment "Non commettere atti impuri")
- La Resa di Titì (1945) as Guido, il diplomatico
- La casa senza tempo (1945) as Capitano Paolo Sivera
- Paese senza pace (1946) as Tita Nane
- Malìa (1946) as Cola, cognato di Jana
- Black Eagle (1946) as Vladimir Dubrowskij
- La monaca di Monza (1947)
- The Great Dawn (1947) as Renzo Gamba
- Fury (1947) as Antonio
- Bullet for Stefano (1947) as Stefano Pelloni
- The Courier of the King (1947) as Julien Sorel
- The White Devil (1947) as Prince André Mdwani as Il diavolo bianco
- Eleonora Duse (1947) as Arrigo Boito
- I contrabbandieri del mare (1948) as Mario
- Little Women (1949) as Professor Bhaer
- Volcano (1950) as Donato
- The Fighting Men (1950) as Saro Costa
- Romanzo d'amore (1950) as Enrico Toselli
- The Black Crown (1951) as Andrés
- Tragic Spell (1951) as Pietro
- Revenge of Black Eagle (1951) as Vladimir Dubrovskij
- The Mistress of Treves (1952) as Sigfrido, conte di Treviri
- The Woman Who Invented Love (1952) as Conte Grilli
- Milady and the Musketeers (1952) as Conte de la Fere aka Athos
- They Were Three Hundred (1952) as Volpintesta
- Son of the Hunchback (1952) as Philippe de Lagardère
- Guilt Is Not Mine (1952) as Carlo Rocchi
- Prisoner in the Tower of Fire (1953) as Cesare Borgia
- Carne de horca (1953) as Juan Pablo de Osuna
- C'era una volta Angelo Musco (1953) as The story-teller
- La Chair et le Diable (1954) as Giuseppe Guardini
- Three Coins in the Fountain (1954) as Georgio Bianchi
- La contessa di Castiglione (1954) as Le comte de Cavour
- The Barefoot Contessa (1954) as Count Vincenzo Torlato-Favrini
- Angela (1954) as Nino
- Barrier of the Law (1954) as Lt. Mario Grandi
- The Last Five Minutes (1955) as Dino Moriani
- Summertime (1955) as Renato de Rossi
- Il conte Aquila (1955) as Conte Federico Confalonieri
- Faccia da mascalzone (1956)
- Loser Takes All (1956) as Bertrand
- The Story of Esther Costello (1957) as Carlo Landi
- Interlude (1957) as Tonio Fischer
- Legend of the Lost (1957) as Paul Bonnard
- South Pacific (1958) as Emile De Becque
- A Certain Smile (1958) as Luc Ferrand
- Count Your Blessings (1959) as Charles Edouard de Valhubert
- Siege of Syracuse (1960) as Archimede
- Austerlitz (1960) as Lucien Bonaparte
- Mondo cane (1962) as Himself
- Light in the Piazza (1962) as Signor Naccarelli
- Rome Adventure (1962) as Roberto Orlandi
- Redhead (1962) as Fabio
- Three Fables of Love (1962) as Leo (segment "Le lièvre et le tortue")
- Dark Purpose (1964) as Count Paolo Barbarelli
- La ragazza in prestito (1964) as Mario Menacci
- Instant Love (1964) - Claudio DeSantis
- The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965) as Lorenzo
- Un amore (1965) as Antonio Dorigo
- The Christmas That Almost Wasn't (1966) as Phineas T. Prune
- The Bobo (1967) as Carlos Matabosch
- La ragazza del bersagliere (1967) as Fernando Moschino
- Per amore... per magia... (1967) as Il narratore
- Woman Times Seven (1967) as Giorgio (segment "Amateur Night")
- Gli altri, gli altri... e noi (1967)
- King of Africa (1968) as Dr. Hamilton
- Criminal Affair (1968) as Ross Simpson (also wrote and directed)
- Krakatoa, East of Java (1969) as Giovanni Borghese
- Il diario segreto di una minorenne (è nata una donna) (1968)
- Psychout for Murder (1969) as Brigoli
- The Italian Job (1969) as Beckerman
- Vita segreta di una diciottenne (1969)
- The Adventurers (1970) as Baron de Coyne
- Intimità proibita di una giovane sposa (1970) as Adolfo Rogano
- Trittico (1971) as Andrea, the Surgeon
- Mister Kingstreet's War (1971) as Major Bernadelli
- Vivi ragazza vivi! (1971) as padre di Barbara
- Drummer of Vengeance (1971) as The Sheriff
- Master of Love (1972) as Lorenzo del Cambio
- The Great Waltz (1972) as Tedesco
- Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1974) as Count Frankenstein
- Giro girotondo... con il sesso è bello il mondo (1975)
- Dracula in the Provinces (1975) as Dr. Paluzzi
- Gli angeli dalle mani bendate (1975)
- Season for Assassins (1975) as Father Eugenio
- Political Asylum (1975) as Ambassador Lara
- Hawaii Five-O (1977) as Stavrik
- Caribia (1978)
- Mr. Too Little (1978) as Zabo The Great
- Catherine and I (1980) as Arthur
- Champagne... e fagioli (1980) as Narrator (uncredited)
- Omen III: The Final Conflict (1981) as DeCarlo
- Anche i ladri hanno un santo (1981)
- Il paramedico (1982) as Augusto Pinna
- The Far Pavilions (1982)
- Hart to Hart (1983) as Pastori
- Fear City (1984) as Carmine
- Final Justice (1985) as Don Lamanna
- Formula for a Murder (1985) as Dr. Sernich
- The Third Solution (1988) as Marini
- Fatal Frames - Fotogrammi mortali (1996) as Dr. Lucidi (final film role)
