It has been announced that Gabriele Ferzetti, who played as Marc-Ange Draco in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service opposite George Lazenby, died yesterday at the age of 90.
Photo: public domain
A prominent figure in Italian cinema frin the 1950s on, Ferzetti’s first leading role came in 1950 in the film Lo Zappatore. He portrayed Puccini twice in 1953 and 1954 in the films Puccini and Casa Ricordi respectively.
Ferzetti made his international breakthrough in 1960 in his most acclaimed role as an oversexed, restless playboy in Michelangelo Antonioni’s controversial L’Avventura. After a series of romantic performances, he acquired a reputation in Italy as an elegant, debonair and a somewhat aristocratic looking leading man.
In 1966, Ferzetti starred as Lot in John Huston’s biblical epic, The Bible: In the Beginning…. In 1968, he played railroad baron Morton in Sergio Leone’s celebrated Once Upon a Time in the West.
A year later, he appeared in the James Bond movie On Her Majesty’s Secret Service as Marc Ange Draco, perhaps his best known role internationally, though his voice was dubbed by British actor David de Keyser.
He is perhaps best known to non-mainstream audiences for his role as the psychiatrist, Hans, in Liliana Cavani’s arthouse classic The Night Porter (1974). In the 1970s he appeared in a significant number of crime films, often as an inspector. He also appeared in Julia and Julia, opposite Laurence Olivier in Inchon (1982) and the cult film First Action Hero. More recently he played the role of Nono in the TV series Une famille formidable and appeared in Luca Guadagnino’s 2009 film I Am Love.
Ferzetti died on 2nd December 2015, aged 90.
Text adapted from Wikipedia and licenced under CC BY-CA 3.0.
