Gabriele Ferzetti

[2][3] Ferzetti starred as Lot in John Huston's biblical epic, The Bible: In the Beginning... (1966), and played railroad baron Morton in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).

Perhaps his best known role, internationally, was in the James Bond movie On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) as Marc Ange Draco, although his voice was dubbed by British actor David de Keyser.

[3] Ferzetti made his screen debut in Via delle Cinque Lune (1942) under the directorship of Luigi Chiarini,[1] featuring actors such as Luisella Beghi, Olga Solbelli, Andrea Checchi, and Gildo Bocci.

He then took a break from film acting, instead making a succession of theatrical appearances until a small role in Lost Happiness (Felicità perduta, 1946) and Riccardo Freda's Les Misérables (uncredited, 1948).

For his performance, Ferzetti received an award from the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists, and further cemented his status as a leading actor in Italy by appearing alongside Lollobrigida.

[7] Ferzetti starred in Michelangelo Antonioni's The Girlfriends (Le Amiche, 1955), as a downbeat, struggling artist named Lorenzo, with Eleonora Rossi Drago, Franco Fabrizi, and Valentina Cortese in the other leading roles.

Ferzetti appeared in the crime film, Parola di ladro (1957), for directors Nanni Loy and Gianni Puccini, opposite Abbe Lane, Nadia Gray, and Andrea Checchi.

Ferzetti appeared in Ballerina e Buon Dio (1958), directed by Antonio Leonviola, followed by Racconti d'estate, under the directorship of Gianni Franciolini, based on a story by Alberto Moravia.

[9] Ferzetti was cast in this romantic comedy, set in the Tigullio Gulf, alongside Alberto Sordi, Michèle Morgan, Marcello Mastroianni, Sylva Koscina, Dorian Gray, Franca Marzi, Franco Fabrizi, and Jorge Mistral.

In 1959, Ferzetti starred alongside Andrée Debar and Isa Miranda as Bernard Turquet de Mayenne in the French historical comedy, Le secret du Chevalier d'Éon.

Among a large ensemble cast, Ferzetti had a role in Jean Delannoy's Imperial Venus (1963), and played the character of Leonardi in Charles Frend and Bruno Vailati's war drama, Torpedo Bay (also 1963), alongside Lilli Palmer, James Mason, and Alberto Lupo.

Ferzetti featured in a total of eight films released in 1968, including Marcello Fondato's I protagonisti, Salvatore Samperi's Grazie zia, José María Forqué's Un diablo bajo la almohada, Roberto Faenza's Escalation, Alberto De Martino's Roma come Chicago, and Sergio Leone's western epic, Once Upon a Time in the West, in which he played Morton, the railroad baron, opposite acclaimed actors Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson.

In 1971, Ferzetti featured in Salvatore Samperi's Million Dollar Eel, a comedy film about an heiress who fakes her own kidnapping and hides in the river Po's delta, in order to obtain money from her parents.

In 1972, Ferzetti starred opposite Robert Blake, Catherine Spaak, and Ernest Borgnine in Franco Prosperi's boxing drama, Un uomo dalla pelle dura.

A series of appearances in crime films followed, including Alta tension, Trois milliards sans ascenseur (1972), and Bisturi la mafia bianca (1973), directed by Luigi Zampa.

Ferzetti played the role of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel opposite Alec Guinness (Adolf Hitler), Simon Ward, Adolfo Celi, and Diane Cilento.

In 1977, he starred in Eriprando Visconti's Oedipus Orca, and Lucio Fulci's The Psychic, about a clairvoyant woman (Jennifer O'Neill), who after having a vision, removes a section of the wall in the home of her husband (Ferzetti) and finds a skeleton behind it.

In 1978, Ferzetti appeared in French director Claude d'Anna's picture, CIA contro KGB, alongside Bruno Cremer, Donald Pleasence, Laure Dechasnel [fr], Hélène Lehman, Dennis Hopper, and Joseph Cotten.

In the mid-1980s, as he came closer to retirement age, Ferzetti's career in film began to decline, mainly appearing in low-budget TV movies and mini series, including an uncredited role in The Scarlet and the Black (1983) under Jerry London, and the mini-series Quo Vadis?

In the 1990s, Ferzetti only appeared in minor or brief roles in TV movies, such as Voyage of Terror: The Achille Lauro Affair (1990), Black as the Heart (1991), Die Ringe des Saturn (1992), Natale con papà (1994) and mini-series such as Private Crimes (1995), in which he played Dr. Braschi.

Ferzetti opposite Gina Lollobrigida in The Wayward Wife ( La Provinciale , 1953)
Ferzetti alongside Lea Massari in L'avventura (1960)
Ferzetti in Long Night in 1943 ( La lunga notte del '43 ), 1960
Ferzetti played Wilhelm Keitel (pictured) in Hitler: The Last Ten Days