Called 'The Italian Gregory Peck' and "a Valentino for the atomic age" by critics, the dark and debonair Mastroianni is one of the few Italian stars to achieve the international fame of female compatriots Sophia Loren and Gina Lollobrigida. He is also one of the most important European film actors to emerge since the end of WWII. Mastroianni had a long road to filmdom: he was raised in Turin and Rome, escaped from a German labor camp and lived on the run for the war's duration. Having worked as a film extra before the war, Mastroianni got an accounting job at a studio and acted in local
