Leopoldo Trieste

Leopoldo Trieste
Leopoldo Trieste in Seduced and Abandoned (1964)
Born(1917-05-03)3 May 1917
Reggio Calabria, Italy
Died25 January 2003(2003-01-25) (aged 85)
Rome, Italy
OccupationActor
Years active1946–2001

Leopoldo Trieste (3 May 1917 – 25 January 2003) was an Italian actor, film director, screenwriter and playwright. He worked with directors such as Federico Fellini, Francis Ford Coppola, Pietro Germi, Giuseppe Tornatore, Mario Bava, Tinto Brass, Charles Vidor, Jean-Jacques Annaud and René Clément.

Life and career

Born in Reggio Calabria, Trieste was the son of a Socialist railway worker who died when he was ten, leaving him and his two sisters orphaned and in difficult financial circumstances.[1] Moved to Rome, he became friends with poet Salvatore Quasimodo, got a degree in letters with Natalino Sapegno in 1939, and was awarded a scholarship in ethnology studies to Boston, which he could not use because of the outbreak of World War II.[1][2] In 1939, driven by his infatuation with actress Adriana Benetti, he enrolled at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia; drafted soon after, he served in the infantry and later in a film unit in Sicily shooting propaganda footage, before deserting in 1944 and returning to Rome.[1]

The author of numerous plays, Trieste made his official debut in 1945, with the drama La frontiera, staged at the Teatro Quirino.[1][2] His 1946 drama play Febbre di vivere was later adapted into a film, Eager to Live, directed by Claudio Gora and starring Marcello Mastroianni.[1] He first entered the film industry as a screenwriter, collaborating among others in Pietro Germi's Lost Youth and Gora's The Sky Is Red.[1]

While Trieste initially had no acting ambitions, his friend Federico Fellini launched him as an actor, first giving him the husband role in The White Sheik, and later making him play an aspiring playwright in I Vitelloni.[1] Trieste soon embarked on an intense career as a character actor and also directed two films, Città di notte and Il peccato degli anni verdi, whose poor box office performance led him to abandon further attempts at directing.[1][3]

In the early 1960s, Trieste earned critical acclaim for his performances in Nanni Loy's A Day for Lionhearts and Pietro Germi's black comedies Divorce Italian Style and Seduced and Abandoned, the latter of which gave him a Nastro d'Argento Award for Best Supporting Actor.[1][3] In 1974, he played one of his better known roles, the loan shark Roberto, in The Godfather Part II.[1][3] In 1985, he won a second Nastro d'Argento for Marco Bellocchio's Henry IV.[3] Starting from the 1980s, he mainly worked with young and upcoming directors such as Roberto Andò, Alessandro Di Robilant, and Giuseppe Tornatore, whose The Star Maker got him a third Nastro as well as a David di Donatello.[1] He was also active on television, notably appearing in Quo Vadis?, The Betrothed, and guest-starring in an episode of Inspector Montalbano.[3]

Trieste died in his sleep from a heart attack on 25 January 2003, at the age of 85.[4][5][6]

Filmography as actor

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Puppa, Paolo (2019). "Trieste, Leopoldo". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 96. Treccani.
  2. ^ a b Lane, John Francis (30 January 2003). "Obituary: Leopoldo Trieste". The Guardian.
  3. ^ a b c d e Lancia, Enrico (2003). "Trieste, Leopoldo". Dizionario del cinema italiano: Gli Attori Vol. 2 M-z. Gremese Editore. pp. 248–250. ISBN 978-88-8440-269-1.
  4. ^ "Actor Leopoldo Trieste Dies at 85". 28 January 2003. Archived from the original on 9 December 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  5. ^ "Leopoldo Trieste". Independent.co.uk. 7 February 2003.
  6. ^ "Leopoldo Trieste". 30 January 2003.

Further reading

  • Zinnato, Carmelo (1999). Leopoldo Trieste. Inseguendo sirene. Biografia e opere teatrali. Abramo. ISBN 978-88-8324-099-7.
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