Salvatori, Renato

(1933-1988)

   Actor. A handsome, athletic lifeguard with no previous acting experience, Salvatori was discovered in his teens by director Luciano Emmer, who promptly cast him as Lucia Bose's jealous fiance in Le ragazze di Piazza di Spagna (Three Girls from Rome, 1952). After playing supporting roles in a number of relatively minor films, he came to national attention as one of the two male leads in Dino Risi's extraordinarily popular Poveri ma belli (Poor, but Handsome, 1956) and its equally successful sequel, Belle ma povere (Pretty but Poor, 1957), both of which topped the box office in their respective years. He subsequently appeared as one of the misguided petty thieves in Mario Monicelli's I soliti ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street, 1958) and in Francesco Rosi's I magliari (The Magliari, 1959) before giving what is generally regarded as the most impressive performance of his entire career playing Simone in Luchino Visconti's Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers, 1960). For the next 20 years he continued to appear, although for the most part in supporting roles, in films by major Italian and international directors, among them Monicelli's I Compagni (The Organizer, 1963), Giulio Pontecorvo's Queimada (Burn! 1969), Costa-Gavras's Z (1968) and Etat de siege (State of Siege, 1972), and Francesco Rosi's Cadaveri eccellenti (Illustrious Corpses, 1976). In the early 1980s, however, he abandoned his acting career in order to work in politics. His last appearance on the screen was in Bernardo Bertolucci's La tragedia d'un uomo ridicolo (Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man, 1981).