Acting
Apr 8, 1933
Milano, Lombardia, Italy
Gian Maria Volonté
Acting
Biography
Gian Maria Volonté (9 April 1933 – 6 December 1994) was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (credited in the USA as "Johnny Wels") and For a Few Dollars More. In Italy and much of Europe, he was notable for his roles in high-profile social dramas depicting the political and social stirrings of Italian and European society in the 1960s and 1970s, including four films directed by Elio Petri - We Still Kill the Old Way (1967), Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1971), The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971) and Todo modo (1976). He is also recognized for his performances in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge (1970) and Giuliano Montaldo's Sacco & Vanzetti (1971). Description above from the Wikipedia article Gian Maria Volonté, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Feature Films (76)
Two bounty hunters both pursue the brutal and sadistic bandit, El Indio, who has a large bounty on his head.
For a Few Dollars More
A helicopter crashes in the desert, and the crew winds up in the underground city of Atlantis and get mixed up in a slave revolt.
Journey Beneath the Desert
When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pulled back into the underworld, however, after a chance encounter with escaped murderer Vogel. Along with former policeman and current alcoholic Jansen, they plot an intricate jewel heist. All the while, quirky Police Commissioner Mattei, who was the one to lose custody of Vogel, is determined to find him.
Le Cercle Rouge
Rome, Italy. After committing a heinous crime, a senior police officer exposes evidence incriminating him because his moral commitment prevents him from circumventing the law and the social order it protects.
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
An exceptional documentary filmed in 1978 by Swedish directors Björn Blixt and Peter Englesson showing the behind-the-scenes of the film Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979) by Francesco Rosi.
Rosi About Eboli
In the fascist Italy of 1935, a painter trained as a doctor is exiled to a remote region near Eboli. Over time, he learns to appreciate the beauty and wisdom of the peasants, and to overcome his isolation.
Christ Stopped at Eboli
King Androcles of Thebes commands a ship in search of a threat to Greece, predicted by an atmospheric oracle. Hercules is part of the crew, but the strongman falls overboard in a thick fog. Washed ashore, he saves a young Ismene from Proteus, an evil, shape-shifting creature. Ismene takes Hercules to Atlantis, where he discovers that her mother, Queen Antinea, has captured Androcles. Hercules schemes to rescue him and thwart Antinea's dream of world conquest.
Hercules and the Captive Women
Tommaso Scalia is a man who commits three murders: he kills his superior who sacked him, the man who replaced him and his wife. He wants a quick trial and an early execution, but an earnest, principled assistant judge looks for a way to save the murderer from being shot, because he does not belive in capital punishment.
Open Doors
El Chuncho's bandits rob arms from a train, intending to sell the weapons to Elias' revolutionaries. They are helped by one of the passengers, Bill Tate, and allow him to join them, unware of his true intentions.
A Bullet for the General
A historian goes to a castle library to translate some ancient erotic literature. While there he discovers what he believes to be supernatural forces at work.
The Witch
Enrico Mattei helped change Italy’s future, first as freedom-fighter against the Nazis, then as an investor in methane gas through a public company, A.G.I.P., and ultimately as the head of ENI, a state body formed for the development of oil resources. On October 27, 1962, he died when his private airplane crashed during a flight to Milan. Officially, it is declared an accident, but many journalists explore other plausible reasons for Mattei's untimely death.
The Mattei Affair
On March 16, 1978, far-left terrorists of the Red Brigades kidnap Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian Democracy, the ruling party in Italy since the end of WWII. 55 days later, his body will be found in the trunk of a car. This is a neutral and factual account of what happened in between.
The Moro Affair
Television & Series (10)
Stendhal's epic tale of a young French officer in the Napoleonic wars, and his aunt - a duchess of legendary beauty and resourcefulness.
The Charterhouse of Parma
Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.
Spécial cinéma
Italian televison adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel of the same name. Although it is to all intents and purposes a television miniseries, the rhythm of the acting is typically theatrical: the long dialogues, the acting style and the actorly interpretation make it a true example of episodic television theatre.
