Girotti, Mario

(1939-)

   Actor. Born in Italy of an Italian father and a German mother, Girotti was first enticed into the film industry at the age of 12 by Dino Risi, who gave him a small part in Vazanze col gangster (Vacation with a Gangster, 1951). He then went on to study classics at the University of Rome but soon abandoned academic studies in order to act in films.

   After minor roles in Mauro Bolognini's La vena d'oro (The Golden Vein, 1955) and Gillo Pontecorvo's La grande strada azzurra (The Wide Blue Road, 1957), he appeared as Count Cavriaghi in Luchino Visconti's Il gattopardo (The Leopard, 1963). There followed a drift toward the European Western, first with parts in a number of the German Westerns adapted from the novels of Karl May, which included Winnetou 2. Teil (Winnetou: Last of the Renegades, 1964), directed by Harald Reinl, and Der Olprinz (Rampage at Apache Wells, 1965), directed by Harald Philipp, and then with a small role in the Italian musical Western Rita nel West (Crazy Westerners, 1967). This led to the role of Cat Stevens in Dio perdona . . . io no (God Forgives . . . I Don't, 1967), the first film in which he adopted the Anglo-Saxon pseudonym Terence Hill, and teamed up with Bud Spencer. As Hill, and with Spencer, he went on to make a long series of knockabout comedies beginning with Lo chiamavano Trinita (My Name Is Trinity, 1971) and continuing with . . . continuavano a chiamarlo Trinita (Trinity Is Still My Name, 1972), and Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo (Watch Out! We're Mad, 1974).

   Having achieved an international reputation with the Trinity films, in the mid-1970s Girotti moved to Hollywood, where he made March or Die (1977) with Gene Hackman and Mr. Billion (1977), directed by Jonathan Kaplan. After directing himself in an updated version of Don Camillo (The World of Don Camillo, 1983) and following the death of his teenage son in a car accident, Hill largely withdrew from the cinema for a number of years but returned to prominence playing the popular priest-detective in the long-running Italian television series Don Matteo (2000-2006).

   Historical Dictionary of Italian Cinema by Alberto Mira