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1-8 of 8
- Raf Vallone was an internationally acclaimed Italian movie star known for his rugged good looks. The athletic Vallone, a former soccer player who often was compared to Burt Lancaster, was born Raffaele Vallone in 1916 in Tropea in Calabria, Italy, the son of a prominent lawyer and his aristocratic wife. At the University of Turin, Vallone took degrees in law and philosophy and then entered his father's law firm.
Vallone played semi-professional soccer but never realized his dream of becoming a professional athlete. Subsequently, he became a sports reporter for L'Unita, a communist newspaper, and also a drama critic for La Stampa. During World War II, Vallone served with the anti-Fascist resistance.
His first job as a movie actor was a bit part in We the Living (1942) (aka, "We the Living"), but Vallone was not serious about acting as a career. Hired as a researcher on a film about labor unrest, director Giuseppe De Santis cast Vallone as a soldier competing with Vittorio Gassman for the love of Silvana Mangano in what became the neo-realist classic Bitter Rice (1949) ("Bitter Rice"). The film propelled Vallone, pronounced a natural actor by De Santis, into international stardom and ended his journalism career.
Vallone became a major star in Italy in the 1950s and then a player in the global film industry, making movies in Italian, French and English. Vallone achieved popularity with American audiences in the 1960s, starting with his supporting roles in Two Women (1960) ("Two Women") and El Cid (1961), both co-starring Sophia Loren. Other major actresses he co-starred with on film and stage included Gina Lollobrigida, Anna Magnani, Melina Mercouri, Simone Signoret, and Elena Varzi, to whom he was married for 52 years, until his death in 2002.
Vallone's first "American" role was as the incest-minded Italian-American longshoreman Eddie Carbone in Sidney Lumet's film of Arthur Miller's A View from the Bridge (1962) ("A View from the Bridge"). Other prominent roles in American films included Otto Preminger's The Cardinal (1963), Roger Corman's The Secret Invasion (1964), Harlow (1965) starring Carroll Baker, and Henry Hathaway's Nevada Smith (1966).
Vallone played many priests during his long career, culminating with the cardinal-confessor of mobster Michael Corleone, a priest who becomes pope and is murdered in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III (1990). Appearing for the other side, Vallone was memorable as the Mafia boss Altabani in the original The Italian Job (1969). - Lello Bersani was born on 27 April 1923 in Rome, Lazio, Italy. He was an actor, known for Un uomo facile (1959), Festival (1996) and Un uomo da ridere (1980). He died on 31 October 2002 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.
- Actress
- Writer
Amsi Kern was born on 18 September 1922 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. She was an actress and writer, known for Chiemgauer Volkstheater (1992), Königlich Bayerisches Amtsgericht (1969) and Der Komödienstadel (1959). She died on 31 October 2002 in Prien am Chiemsee, Bavaria, Germany.- Napier Crookenden was born on 31 August 1915 in Cheshire, England, UK. He was married to Patricia Kindersley. He died on 31 October 2002 in Edenbridge, Kent, England, UK.
- Soundtrack
Claude Johnson was born on 24 November 1933 in Salisbury, North Carolina, USA. He died on 31 October 2002 in New York, New York, USA.- Serafim Kozminskiy was born on 15 March 1906 in the Russian Empire. He was an actor, known for Goryachaya krov (1932), School of Courage (1954) and Lenin in 1918 (1939). He died on 31 October 2002 in Russia.
- Maria Seroczynska was born on 23 September 1923 in Sallaumines, Pas-de-Calais, France. She was an actress, known for Tulipan (1986), Z soboty na poniedzialek (1989) and Cien juz niedaleko (1985). She died on 31 October 2002 in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland.
- Jovan Scekic was an actor and writer, known for Gosti iz Afrike u Jugoslaviji (1961), Sa svih meridijana (1970) and Kako (1972). He died on 31 October 2002 in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro.