Terence Hill – actor

Film star progressed from playing cowboys to become a popular parish priest

Terence Hill was born as Mario Girotti on this day in 1939 in Venice.

He became an actor as a child and went on to have many starring roles in films, particularly spaghetti westerns.

Terence Hill (left), born Mario Girotti, in his most famous
role as the parish priest Don Matteo

It was when he began acting in that genre that he changed his name to Terence Hill at the suggestion of one of his producers, who told him that Italian-made westerns were better received in English-speaking countries if the names in the credits sounded American. 

He is said to have settled on Hill after the first name of his German-born mother, Hildegard, and Terence after the name of a Roman poet and playwright he admired.

Terence Hill later became a household name in Italy as the actor who played the lead character in the long-running television series, Don Matteo.

Hill lived in Germany as a child but then his family moved to Rome, the capital of Italy’s film industry. When he was 12 years old, Hill was spotted by director Dino Risi and given a part in Vacanze col gangster, an adventure movie in which five youngsters help a dangerous gangster escape from prison.

Other film parts quickly followed and at the height of his popularity, Hill was said to be among the highest-paid actors in Italy.

Hill had a leading role in Il Gattopardo
(The Leopard) under his real name

 
His most famous films are They Call Me Trinity and My Name is Nobody, in which he appeared with Henry Fonda. Another of his films, Django, Prepare a coffin was featured at the 64th Venice film festival in 2007.

Hill also had a major role in Luchino Visconti’s film, The Leopard along with Burt Lancaster, Claudia Cardinale and Alain Delon, in which he was listed in the cast under his real name.

Since 2000, on Italian television, Hill has portrayed Don Matteo, an inspirational parish priest who assists the Carabinieri to solve crimes that affect his community in Gubbio.

Hill received an international ‘Outstanding Actor of the Year’ award for this role at the 42nd Monte Carlo television festival.

The next episode of Series 10 of Don Matteo will be shown on Thursday, 31 March at 21.20 Italian time on Rai Uno.

The Piazza della Signoria in Gubbio
(Photo: Lisa1963 (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Travel tip:

Gubbio in Umbria, where Don Matteo is filmed, is a small medieval town perched on the lower slopes of Mount Ingino in the Apennines. Via della Repubblica, the main street, leads to Piazza della Signoria where there is a magnificent 14th century palace, Palazzo dei Consoli, which houses the Tavole Eugubine, bronze tablets written in an ancient Umbrian language. From the square there are wonderful views over the town and surrounding countryside.

Travel tip:

Cinecittà in Rome, the hub of the Italian film industry, is a large studio complex to the south of the city, built during the fascist era under the personal direction of Benito Mussolini and his son, Vittorio. The studios were bombed by the Allies in the Second World War but were rebuilt and used again in the 1950s for large productions, such as Ben Hur. These days a range of productions, from television drama to music videos, are filmed there and it has its own dedicated Metro stop.

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Alberto Grimaldi - film producer

Spaghetti Western trilogy gave Naples producer his big break

Alberto Grimaldi

Film producer Alberto Grimaldi, who celebrates his 91st birthday today, boasts an extraordinary list of credits that includes Last Tango in Paris, The Canterbury Tales, Man of La Mancha, Fellini's Casanova, 1900, Ginger and Fred and Gangs of New York.

Born in Naples on this day in 1925, Grimaldi trained as a lawyer and it was in that capacity that he initially found work in the cinema industry in the 1950s.

However, he could see the money-making potential in production and in the early 1960s set up his own company, Produzioni Europee Associate (PEA).

His first three productions, cashing in on the popularity in Italy of westerns, enjoyed some success but it was a meeting with Sergio Leone, the Italian director, that earned him his big break.

Leone, whose first venture into the western genre, A Fistful of Dollars, had been an unexpected hit both for him and the young American actor, Clint Eastwood, was busy planning the sequel when a dispute arose with his producers over the cost of the movie.

Movie poster advertising Scorsese's
epic Gangs of New York

As it happened, Grimaldi's first production, The Shadow of Zorro, had been filmed, like A Fistful of Dollars, on location in Spain.  Leone knew of Grimaldi's legal background and initially sought his advice on settling the dispute.  Ultimately, they agreed to collaborate and the Leone classics, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, also starring Eastwood, were PEA productions.

Both were considerable box office hits and established Grimaldi's name, opening many doors.

By the 1970s, Grimaldi was in a position to produce movies by many of Italy's top directors, including Federico Fellini, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Pier Paolo Pasolini, as well as supporting the artistic aspirations of other Italian directors, such as Gillo Pontecorvo, Elio Petri and Francesco Rosi.

He became more selective in his projects in the 1980s, notably turning down the chance to work with Leone again on Once Upon a Time in America. After producing Fellini's comedy drama Ginger and Fred, a 1986 film about two Italian impersonators of the American dance movie legends, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, it was 16 years before his name was attached to the $100 million Martin Scorcese epic, Gangs of New York, which was released in 2002.  By then Grimaldi was aged 77.

Via Partenope in 1935

Travel tip:

Grimaldi's home city of Naples has changed little in his lifetime.  The black and white postcard image shows the Via Partenope, bordering the waterfront in the Santa Lucia district of the city, in 1935, when Grimaldi was a 10-year-old boy.  It is scarcely different today, 81 years on.

Over the rooftops of Naples towards Mergellina and
Posillipo, as seen from Castel Sant'Elmo

Travel tip:

Visitors to Naples who crave a more peaceful side to the city away from the chaos of the Spaccanapoli or the Spanish Quarter should venture north from Piazza del Plebiscito and the Royal Palace on to the long promenade of Via Francesco Caracciolo towards Mergellina and the residential quarter of Posillipo, the traditional home of the more wealthy Neapolitans.



More reading:

Sergio Leone - Spaghetti western creator

Federico Fellini's cinematic legacy

How Franco Zeffirelli became a household name

Also on this day:

1472: The birth of the great Renaissance painter Fra Bartolommeo

1918: The birth of opera star Anselmo Colzani

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Gianluigi Lentini - footballer with world record price tag

AC Milan outbid Juventus for Torino star

Gianluigi Lentini in his early days with Torino

Gianluigi Lentini, born on this day in 1969, was for four years the world's most expensive footballer.

A winger with Torino known for outstanding dribbling skills, crossing accuracy and lightning pace, Lentini was the subject of a fierce bidding war between Torino's city neighbours, Juventus, and defending Serie A champions AC Milan in the summer of 1992 which ended with Milan paying a fee of around £13 million for the 23-year-old star.

It was the second time in the space of a few weeks that Milan had paid a world record sum for a player, having signed the French striker Jean-Pierre Papin from Marseille for £10 million.

At a time when the Italian league was awash with cash, the Papin record itself had been eclipsed a short while before the Lentini deal was agreed when Juventus paid Sampdoria £12 million for striker Gianluca Vialli.

The Lentini record would remain until Newcastle United forked out £15 million for the Blackburn and England striker Alan Shearer in 1996.

Born in Carmagnola, a small town around 30 kilometres (18 miles) south of Turin, Lentini made his Serie A debut for Torino as a 17-year-old and in a struggling team did not make a notably impressive start.

He was sent out on loan to Ancona, newly promoted to Serie B, for the 1988-89 season and the experience did wonders for his game. He returned to Torino a smarter player and physically stronger. His parent club had been relegated in his absence but Lentini made an immediate impact on his return, scoring six goals and contributing numerous assists as Torino were promoted back to Serie A at the first attempt.

As Lentini continued to shine, Torino prospered, finishing fifth in their first season back in the top flight and then third in 1991-92, their highest position since winning the Serie A title in 1975-76. They also reached the final of the UEFA Cup.

Fabio Capello

The big-money move to Milan came that summer and Lentini enjoyed a successful debut season, scoring seven goals as Fabio Capello's team retained the championship and reached the final of the European Cup.

But a year after joining Milan, and by then a regular in the Italian national team, Lentini's world was shattered when, on the way home from a pre-season tournament in Genoa, he lost control of his Porsche 911 on a bend near the small town of Villafranca d'Asti, just east of Turin.

The high performance sports car overturned in a ditch and burst into flames.  Lentini was thrown clear but sustained severe head injuries and might have died had he not been found by a passing lorry driver, who immediately called for an ambulance.

He recovered enough to resume his football career but suffered blurred vision and memory problems and was never the same player subsequently and struggled to keep a regular place in the Milan team. He won a Champions League medal in 1994 as Milan crushed Barcelona 4-0 in the final but remained on the bench throughout.

Nonetheless, after leaving Milan to join Atalanta in 1996, Lentini refused to allow the disappointment to crush his spirit. He told friends he felt lucky to have survived his accident and played on, remarkably, until he was in his 40s.  He rejoined Torino in 1997 and enjoyed another season in Serie A after helping them win promotion in 1999, then played for a number of lower division teams before hanging up his boots.  He dropped even to the fifth tier of Italian football to play for Canelli, a town in Piemonte of just 10,000 inhabitants, for whom he scored 37 goals in 74 games, and finished in the sixth tier, playing for his home town club in Carmagnola.

Lentini's 19-year-old son, Nicholas, plays for the Serie D side Sporting Bellinzago as a goalkeeper.

The Piazza Castello in the centre of Turin, looking
 towards the Palazzo Reale

Travel tip:

Although Turin is regarded as an industrial city, sometimes dubbed the Detroit of Italy because of the number of major motor manufacturers based there, it has a rich history as the former capital of the Duchy of Savoy and some outstanding baroque architecture.  At the heart of the city in Piazza Castello can be found four impressive buildings - the Palazzo Reale, the former seat of the Savoy royal family, the Palazzo Madama, which hosted the Savoy senate and briefly, after Italian unification, the Italian senate, the former Teatro Regio di Torino and the Biblioteca Reale (Royal Library), which hosts Leonardo da Vinci's self-portrait.

Travel tip:

Torino's stadium, the Stadio Olimpico, was known as the Stadio Municipale Benito Mussolini after it was opened in 1933, being renamed Stadio Comunale after World War II and acquiring its current identity after being chosen to host the opening and closing ceremonies at the Winter Olympics in 2006.  It is situated around four kilometres south of the centre of Turin in the Santa Rita district. It was home to Torino and city rivals Juventus from 1963 until 1990, when both clubs moved to the new Stadio delle Alpi, and has been home again to Torino since 2006.  Stadium tours can be booked and a Torino tourist card also gives access to the Olympic Museum situated in the stadium.

Easter in Italy

Easter - La Pasqua in Italian - is a festive holiday throughout Italy and Easter Sunday is marked with religious parades and celebrations in many towns and cities.  Often large crowds assemble for processions that involve statues of Jesus or Mary carried along the streets.  Chocolate eggs are exchanged as in other countries and the main meal of the day often features lamb. 

More reading on football:

Azeglio Vicini and Italy's 1990 World Cup heartbreak

The breakaway group who founded Milan giants Internazionale

Dino Zoff - record-breaking goalkeeper who became Italy boss

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Guccio Gucci – fashion designer

The man whose name inspired the interlocking G logo

Guccio Gucci

The founder of the House of Gucci, Guccio Gucci, was born on this day in 1881 in Florence.

In the early 1900s Gucci worked as a lift boy at the Savoy Hotel in London, where he was inspired by the elegance of the wealthy people who stayed there and their smart luggage.

On his return to Florence he started making his own line of leather travel bags and accessories and in the 1920s he opened a small leather and equestrian shop in Via della Vigna Nuova.  Some of his skills were inherited from his father, Gabriello, who was a leather craftsman from San Miniato, near Pisa.

Gucci later added handbags to his line and relocated to a bigger shop. He was fascinated with horses and his handbags featured clasps and fasteners resembling horse bits and stirrups. He gained a reputation for hiring the best craftsmen he could to work on his products.

In 1938, encouraged by his son, Aldo, he expanded his business to Rome. When raw materials became scarce during the war he used materials such as hemp and linen to make his bags, but still trimmed them with metal resembling horse bits and stirrups.

A Gucci bag in vintage design featuring leather
and fabric and the familiar interlocking G logo

The Gucci label later became famous for certain key products, such as a bag with bamboo handles and a pair of classic loafers.  

Gucci and his wife, Aida Calvelli, had six children and four of their sons, Aldo, Vasco, Ugo and Rodolfo later joined the business.

In 1951 Gucci opened a store in Milan. His preference was for keeping the business relatively small and limiting it to Italy. But his sons had more ambitious ideas and two years later expanded overseas by opening a store in Manhattan.

Gucci died in Milan in 1953, just two weeks after the New York store launched. After his death his sons continued to expand the business, opening boutiques in London and Paris.

In addition to the interlocking Gs, the House of Gucci also featured products displaying Gucci's 'knight logo', a coat of arms with a knight in full armour carrying two suitcases or bags at the centre. The coat of arms was based on an inherited ancestral coat of arms, which the family claimed the right to use after the Kingdom of Italy had transitioned into the Italian Republic.

Via de' Tornabuoni, which is Florence's
most elegant shopping street

Travel tip:

Although the first Gucci shop in Florence was in Via della Vigna Nuova, their flagship store is now in nearby Via de' Tornabuoni, the city’s most elegant shopping street, where it sits alongside the other top couturiers and jewellers. The street also has some fashionable cafes where smart shoppers can pause for refreshment.

Florence hotels by Booking.com

The Gucci store in Milan can be found
in fashionable Via Montenapoleone 

Travel tip:

Milan’s Gucci store is right in the heart of the fashion district in Via Montenapoleone, which is a short walk from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. It is one of the four sides of the quadrilateral which makes up Milan’s fashion district. The other three sides are Via Manzoni, Via della Spiga and Via Sant’Andrea.

Find a hotel in Milan with Tripadvisor

More reading:

Nina Ricci - designer from Turin who wowed Paris

The Meteoric Rise of Gianni Versace

Also on this day:

1941: The birth of racing driver Lella Lombardi

1958: The birth of racing driver Elio de Angelis

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