Biography
Gabriele Ferzetti (born Pasquale Ferzetti) was an Italian actor who appeared in more than 160 film, television and stage roles between 1942 and 2015. He made his screen debut as a teenager and became a leading man in the 1950s.
Ferzetti trained at the Rome Academy of Dramatic Art after winning a scholarship, though he was later expelled for working professionally. His international breakthrough came with the role of Sandro in Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Avventura (1960). He twice won the Nastro d’Argento for Best Supporting Actor, for The Wayward Wife (1953) and We Still Kill the Old Way (1967).
Among his best-known international roles were railroad baron Morton in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Marc Ange Draco in the James Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), and Edoardo Recchi Senior in Luca Guadagnino’s I Am Love (2010). He also appeared as Lot in The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966) and as Hans in The Night Porter (1974). Ferzetti died in Rome on 2 December 2015.
