HOLLYWOOD — A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was unveiled Monday honoring Giancarlo Giannini for a career which included a best actor Oscar nomination, part of an extensive collaboration with legendary Italian director Lina Wertmuller.
“This is a wonderful moment, and I’m very happy to be here,” Giannini told the crowd during the unveiling ceremony. “I want to thank all who thought of giving it to me, this star.”
Giannini said he wanted to dedicate the star “to a wonderful director, her name is Lina Wertmuller, who created me and I’m sure is up there waiting for me, maybe to do other movies.”
Wertmuller died in 2021.
Italian Sen. Lucia Borgonzoni, a former undersecretary for cultural heritage and activities, movie producers Michael Gregg Wilson and Barbara Broccoli and Tiziana Rocca, the artistic director of the Filming Italy Los Angeles Festival, were among those joining Giannini at the 11:30 a.m. ceremony at 6361 Hollywood Blvd., between Cahuenga Boulevard and Ivar Avenue.
Wilson has been a producer of the 15 most recent James Bond movies, while Broccoli, his half-sister, has been a producer or associate producer for the last 11. Giannini portrayed French agent René Mathis in the James Bond films “Casino Royale” and “Quantum of Solace.”
The ceremony came three days after Giannini received the Filming Italy Lifetime Achievement Award and had a day celebrating his career with a marathon of his most famous films.
The star is the 2,752nd since the completion of the Walk of Fame in 1961 with the initial 1,558 stars.
Born Aug. 1, 1942, in La Spezia, Italy, Giannini enrolled in the Academy of Dramatic Art D’Amico in Rome when he was 18. His early theater credits included contemporary Italian plays, and Franco Zeffirelli’s productions of “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.”
Giannini made his film and television debuts in 1965, starring in the Freudian psychological thriller “Libido” and playing the title role in “David Copperfield,” a seven-episode miniseries adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel that aired on the Italian network Rai.
Giannini began his collaboration with Wertmuller with the musical “Rita the Mosquito,” which was released in 1966. He also starred in its 1967 sequel, “Don’t Sting the Mosquito,” which she also directed.
Wertmuller directed Giannini in his Oscar-nominated portrayal of a small-time hood in fascist and World War II-era Italy in “Seven Beauties,” which was released in the United States in 1976. Wertmuller also directed Giannini in “The Seduction of Mimi,” “Love & Anarchy,” “Swept Away,” “A Night Full of Rain,” “Blood Feud” and “Francesca and Nunziata.”
Giannini’s other film credits include “Hannibal,” “The Innocent,” “Man on Fire,” “New York Stories,” “Lili Marleen” and “A Walk in the Clouds.”
Giannini built a reputation for dubbing international stars in films released in Italy, including Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Michael Douglas, Dustin Hoffman, Gerard Depardieu and Ian McKellen.
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