Best Italian Actors of All Time
by alfonsozappiaaz | created - 12 May 2021 | updated - 12 May 2021 | PublicThis is the list with the best Italian actors of all time. Only Italian-born, so without Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Sylvester Stallone
1. Alberto Sordi
Actor | Io e Caterina
One of Italy's most captivating and talented cinematic comedy stars, Italian veteran Alberto Sordi was known for satirizing his country's social mores in pungent black comedies, farcical tales and grim drama. He, along with peers Vittorio Gassman, Ugo Tognazzi and Nino Manfredi, arguably represent ...
2. Sophia Loren
Actress | La ciociara
Sophia Loren was born as Sofia Scicolone at the Clinica Regina Margherita in Rome on September 20, 1934. Her father Riccardo was married to another woman and refused to marry her mother Romilda Villani, despite the fact that she was the mother of his two children (Sophia and her younger sister ...
3. Ugo Tognazzi
Actor | La Cage aux folles
Among others of Ugo Tognazzi's superb, award-winning performances of his prolific career, this excellent Italian character star has been widely cherished for his classic comedy role of gay cabaret owner Renato Baldi, opposite Michel Serrault's hilariously mincing drag queen partner Alban, in La ...
4. Vittorio Gassman
Actor | Sleepers
Vittorio Gassman studied theatre in his youth and was quite a good basketball player. He debuted on stage in 1943 and soon felt home in all classical theatre works. Since 1946 he also worked at the movies and his first big role there was the criminal in Bitter Rice (1949). This fixed him to his ...
5. Nino Manfredi
Actor | Per grazia ricevuta
Nino Manfredi was born on March 22, 1921 in Castro dei Volsci, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor and writer, known for Between Miracles (1971), Bread and Chocolate (1974) and Café Express (1980). He was married to Erminia Ferrari Manfredi. He died on June 4, 2004 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
6. Marcello Mastroianni
Actor | La dolce vita
Marcello Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, Italy in 1924, but soon his family moved to Turin and then Rome. During WW2 he was sent to a German prison camp, but he managed to escape and hide in Venice. He debuted in films as an extra in Marionette (1939), then started working for the Italian ...
7. Paolo Villaggio
Actor | Fracchia la belva umana
Very popular actor and writer in Italy. He worked in over 80 movies and TV series. Known especially for portraing the character of "Fantozzi" on several movies. Paolo Villaggio was born on December 30, 1932 in Genoa, Liguria, Italy. He was known for Fantozzi (1975) (aka Fantozzi), Fantozzi 2 (1976)...
8. Bud Spencer
Actor | ...altrimenti ci arrabbiamo!
Bud Spencer, the popular Italian actor who starred in innumerable spaghetti Westerns and action-packed potboilers during the 1960s and 1970s, was born Carlo Pedersoli on October 31, 1929, in Naples. The first Italian to swim the 100-meter freestyle in less than a minute, Spencer competed as a ...
9. Terence Hill
Actor | ...altrimenti ci arrabbiamo!
Terence Hill was born as Mario Girotti on March 29, 1939 in Venice, Italy to a chemist. His mother was German, and as a child the family lived near Dresden, Saxony, Germany where they survived the Allied bombings of World War II. Italian film-maker Dino Risi discovered him at a swimming meet and he...
10. Lino Banfi
Actor | L'allenatore nel pallone
He was born in the Apulian city of Andria and at the age of three, moved to Canosa di Puglia. Lino Banfi became one of the most well-known actors in Italian "sexy comedies" in the 1970s. In the 1980s he reached the peak of his fame by appearing in movies such as "L'allenatore nel pallone", "Vieni ...
11. Christian De Sica
Actor | The Tourist
Christian De Sica was born in Rome, son of the great Vittorio and Maria Mercader. He is one of the most famous and popular characters of the Italian showbiz, actor in more than 80 movies in his career, showman, singer, director, screenwriter. He has been active on the small and silver screen since ...
12. Carlo Verdone
Actor | La grande bellezza
Carlo Verdone is considered by many the heir of Alberto Sordi, expecially when they acted together in Troppo forte and In viaggio con papa', in these films many similarities with Sordi were apparent, the popular language, the romanesco, and the embodiment of Italian middle man in the '80s that ...
Tell Your Friends