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Through Italy, Rome and World War II
Born in Fontana Liri (province of Frosinone, Lazio, IT) and raised in Turin and Rome, Mastroianni made his film debut in 1939 at the age of 14, but did not seriously pursue acting until the 1950s, when he made his critical and commercial breakthrough in the caper comedy Big Deal on Madonna Street (Italian I soliti ignoti, 1959). He became an international celebrity through his collaborations with director Federico Fellini, first as a disillusioned tabloid columnist in La Dolce Vita (1960), then as a creatively-stifled filmmaker in 8½ (1963). Excelling in both dramatic and comedic roles, he formed a notable on-screen duo with actress and sex symbol Sophia Loren, co-starring with her in eleven films between 1954 and 1994.
Despite international acclaim, Mastroianni largely shunned Hollywood, and remained a quintessentially Italian thespian for the majority of his career. He was the first actor to receive an Academy Award nomination for a non-English language performance, and was nominated for Best Actor three times – Divorce Italian Style (Italian Divorzio all'italiana, 1961), A Special Day (Una giornata particolare, 1977), and Dark Eyes (Italia Oci Ciornie, 1987). He was one of only three actors, the others being Jack Lemmon and Dean Stockwell, to win the prestigious Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor twice. Mastroianni's contributions to Italian art and culture saw him receive multiple civil honours, including the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the highest-ranking knighthood of the country.
Early life
Mastroianni was born in Fontana Liri, a small village in the Apennines within the Lazio province of Frosinone, and grew up in Turin and Rome. He was the son of Ida Irolle and Ottone Mastroianni. Both of his parents were from the nearby town of Arpino. His father ran a carpentry shop. Mastroianni was a nephew of sculptor Umberto Mastroianni. During World War II, after the division into Axis and Allied Italy, he was interned in a loosely guarded German prison camp, from which he escaped to hide in Venice.
His brother Ruggero Mastroianni was a film editor who worked on some of Marcello's films (City of Women, Ginger and Fred), and appeared alongside Marcello in Scipio the African, a spoof of the once popular Sword and Sandal film genre released in 1971.
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Acting career
Mastroianni made his screen debut as an uncredited extra in Marionette (1939) when he was fourteen and made intermittent minor film appearances until landing his first big role in Atto d'accusa (1951). Within a decade he became a major international celebrity, starring in Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958) and in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960), playing a disillusioned and self-loathing tabloid columnist who spends his days and nights exploring Rome's decadent high society. Mastroianni followed La Dolce Vita with Fellini's 8½ (1963), in which he created another signature role, that of a film director who, amidst self-doubt and troubled love affairs, finds himself in a creative block while making a film.
His other prominent films include Days of Love (1954) with Marina Vlady; La Notte (1961) with Jeanne Moreau; Too Bad She's Bad (1954), Lucky to Be a Woman (1956), Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963), Marriage Italian Style (1964), Sunflower (1970), The Priest's Wife (1971), A Special Day (1977) and Robert Altman's Prêt-à-Porter (1994) – all co-starring Sophia Loren; Luchino Visconti's White Nights (1957); Pietro Germi's Divorce Italian Style (1961); Family Diary (1962) with Jacques Perrin; A Very Private Affair (1962) with Brigitte Bardot; Mario Monicelli's Casanova 70 (1965); Diamonds for Breakfast (1968) with Rita Tushingham; The Pizza Triangle (1970) with Monica Vitti; Massacre in Rome (1973) with Richard Burton; The Sunday Woman (1975) with Jacqueline Bisset; Stay As You Are (1978) with Nastassja Kinski; Fellini's City of Women (1980) and Ginger and Fred (1986); Marco Bellocchio's Henry IV (1984); Macaroni (1985) with Jack Lemmon; Nikita Mikhalkov's Dark Eyes (1987) with Marthe Keller; Giuseppe Tornatore's Everybody's Fine (1990); Used People (1992) with Shirley MacLaine; and Agnès Varda's One Hundred and One Nights (1995).
He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor three times: for Divorce Italian Style, A Special Day and Dark Eyes. Mastroianni, Dean Stockwell and Jack Lemmon are the only actors to have been twice awarded the Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival. Mastroianni won it in 1970 for The Pizza Triangle and in 1987 for Dark Eyes.
Mastroianni starred alongside his daughter, Chiara Mastroianni, in Raúl Ruiz's Three Lives and Only One Death in 1996. For this performance he won the Silver Wave Award at the Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival. His final film, Voyage to the Beginning of the World (1997), was released posthumously.
Personal life
Mastroianni married Flora Carabella on 12 August 1950. They had one daughter together, Barbara (1951–2018), and informally separated in 1964 because of his affairs with younger women. Mastroianni's first serious relationship after the separation was with Faye Dunaway, his co-star in A Place for Lovers (1968). Dunaway wanted to marry and have children, but Mastroianni, a Catholic, refused to divorce Carabella. In 1970, after more than two years of waiting for Mastroianni to change his mind, Dunaway left him. Mastroianni told a reporter for People magazine in 1987 that he never got over the breakup. "She was the woman I loved the most," he said. "I'll always be sorry to have lost her. I was whole with her for the first time in my life." In her 1995 autobiography Looking for Gatsby, Dunaway wrote: "I wish to this day it had worked out." In the 2024 documentary Faye, she described him as the love of her life.
After the break up with Dunaway, Mastroianni began a relationship with French actress Catherine Deneuve, who was nearly 20 years his junior. They lived together for four years during the 1970s and had a daughter, Chiara Mastroianni (born 28 May 1972). During their time together the couple made four films: It Only Happens to Others (1971), La cagna (1972), A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973) and Don't Touch the White Woman! (1974). After Mastroianni and Deneuve broke up, his estranged wife Carabella reportedly offered to adopt Chiara because her parents' busy careers kept them away from her so often. Deneuve adamantly refused.
Mastroianni's other lovers reportedly included actresses Anouk Aimée, Carole Mallory, Claudia Cardinale, Lauren Hutton and Ursula Andress. By 1976, he became involved with Anna Maria Tatò, an author and filmmaker. They remained together until his death in 1996.
He was made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 1994.
Death
Mastroianni died of pancreatic cancer on 19 December 1996 at the age of 72. Both of his daughters, as well as Deneuve and Tatò, were at his bedside. The Trevi Fountain in Rome, associated with his role in Fellini's La Dolce Vita, was symbolically turned off and draped in black as a tribute. A funeral was held at the Church of St. Sulpice in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris 20 December 1996 before his remains were transferred to Rome where a second ceremony took place at the city hall on 22 December before he was interred in his family vault in Verano Cemetery.
At the 1997 Venice Film Festival, Chiara, Carabella, and Deneuve tried to block the screening of Tatò's four-hour documentary, Marcello Mastroianni: I Remember. The festival refused and the film was shown. The three women reportedly tried to do the same thing at Cannes. Tatò said Mastroianni had willed her all rights to his image.
Awards and nominations
Wins
- David di Donatello
- Best Actor
- 1964 Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
- 1965 Marriage Italian Style
- 1986 Ginger and Fred
- 1988 Dark Eyes
- 1995 According to Pereira
- 1983 Carrer David
- 1995 Special David
- 1997 Carrer David (posthumous)
- Best Actor
- Nastro d'Argento
- Best Actor
- 1955 Days of Love
- 1958 White Nights
- 1961 La Dolce Vita
- 1962 Divorce Italian Style
- 1986 Ginger and Fred
- 1988 Dark Eyes
- 1991 Towards Evening
- 1997 Special Nastro d'Argento (posthumous)
- Best Actor
- Venice Film Festival
- Golden Lion
- 1990 Honorary Award
- Best Actor
- 1989 What Time Is It?
- Best Supporting Actor
- 1993 1, 2, 3, Sun
- Golden Lion
- Cairo International Film Festival
- Career achievement award
- 1990 Honorary Award
- Career achievement award
- Cannes Film Festival
- Best Actor
- 1970 The Pizza Triangle
- 1988 Dark Eyes
- Best Actor
- BAFTA Award
- Best Foreign Actor
- 1964 Divorce Italian Style
- 1965 Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
- Best Foreign Actor
- Golden Globe Award
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
- 1963 Divorce Italian Style
- Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
- César Award
- 1993 Honorary César
Nominations
- Academy Award
- Academy Award for Best Actor
- 1963 Divorce Italian Style
- 1978 A Special Day
- 1988 Dark Eyes
- Academy Award for Best Actor
Honours and achievements
Orders
- 3rd Class / Commander: Cavaliere Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 1967
- 2nd Class / Grand Officer: Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 1987
- 1st Class / Knight Grand Cross: Cavaliere di Gran Croce Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana: 1994