A soulful performer in international productions since the 1960s, actor Giancarlo Giannini was a staple of the arthouse cinema scene in his native Italy before expanding to American features and even TV movies in the 1980s and beyond. His melancholic demeanor made him ideal for downtrodden Everymen or other hard-luck types for whom life is a daily act of survival. He received his greatest showcases from director Lina Wertmuller, who cast him in nearly all of his films, most notably “Seven Beauties” (1973), which earned him an Oscar nomination as a concentration camp inmate who debases himself
