Marcello Mastroianni

An international star, Marcello Mastroianni entered the world Sept. 28, 1924, in Fontana Liri, Italy. After World War II, he took a job as a bookkeeper for a film company and performed in local theater during his free time.

Mastroianni landed on the big screen in 1947 with a small part in the Italian version of Les Miserables and achieved national notoriety with White Nights (1957) and Big Deal on Madonna Street (1958). He exploded onto the world stage playing a cynical gossip columnist in La Dolce Vita (1960). Paired with cinema siren Sophia Loren in the 1961 black comedy Divorce Italian Style, Mastroianni earned the first of three Best Actor Oscar nods and followed with a superb turn as director Federico Fellini's alter ego in 8 1/2 (1963).

Mastroianni's other notable works include A Special Day (1977) and Dark Eyes (1987). He died in Paris Dec. 19, 1996, from pancreatic cancer.

La Dolce Vita

1960 NR

Marcello, a gossip writer, finds himself among the fleeting excesses and decadence of life and sex. He sleeps with Maddalena, his fiancée is suicidal, and his intellectual friend may not be who he thinks he is.