Luigi Pistilli was an Italian actor of stage, screen, and television. In theater, he was considered one of the country's best interpreters of Bertolt Brecht's plays in "The Threepenny Opera" and "St. Joan of the Stockyards".
Born in Grosseto, Pistilli studied acting at Milan's Piccolo Teatro, graduating in 1955. He never completely severed his ties with the theater and often returned to appear in plays directed by Giorgio Strehler. Pistilli made his feature film debut with an uncredited role in "Dark Passage" in 1947.
He appeared in many Spaghetti Westerns such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), as the priest brother of Eli Wallach's character Tuco, and in "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) as the cunning second-in-command Groggy, which was his first credited film role. He played the murderous Alberto in the Mario Bava giallo "Twitch of the Death Nerve" in 1971, and had a regular role on the popular Italian television Mafia drama "The Octopus".
In 1972, he appeared in the giallo film "Your Vice Is a Locked Room" and "Only I Have the Key" playing an alcoholic.
Pistilli committed suicide just before he was to appear in the final performance of Terence Rattigan's Tosca on April 21, 1996. The program was panned by critics and audiences and that might have contributed to Pistilli's state of mind. However, according to his suicide note, he had suffered deep despair after making bitter public comments regarding the recent end of a four-year off-stage relationship with singer and actress Milva. In his note he apologized to her for the spiteful statements released in the published interview. Taking a dosage of barbiturates, he hanged himself in his apartment at via Mozart, Milan. He was 66 years of age.
Following the celebration of a funeral mass at the chiesetta di San Babila, his body was interred in the cemetery of Cori Alto, near Latina, next to the remains of his mother and his son, Daniele, who predeceased him in 1989 at the age of 24.
Born in Grosseto, Pistilli studied acting at Milan's Piccolo Teatro, graduating in 1955. He never completely severed his ties with the theater and often returned to appear in plays directed by Giorgio Strehler. Pistilli made his feature film debut with an uncredited role in "Dark Passage" in 1947.
He appeared in many Spaghetti Westerns such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), as the priest brother of Eli Wallach's character Tuco, and in "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) as the cunning second-in-command Groggy, which was his first credited film role. He played the murderous Alberto in the Mario Bava giallo "Twitch of the Death Nerve" in 1971, and had a regular role on the popular Italian television Mafia drama "The Octopus".
In 1972, he appeared in the giallo film "Your Vice Is a Locked Room" and "Only I Have the Key" playing an alcoholic.
Pistilli committed suicide just before he was to appear in the final performance of Terence Rattigan's Tosca on April 21, 1996. The program was panned by critics and audiences and that might have contributed to Pistilli's state of mind. However, according to his suicide note, he had suffered deep despair after making bitter public comments regarding the recent end of a four-year off-stage relationship with singer and actress Milva. In his note he apologized to her for the spiteful statements released in the published interview. Taking a dosage of barbiturates, he hanged himself in his apartment at via Mozart, Milan. He was 66 years of age.
Following the celebration of a funeral mass at the chiesetta di San Babila, his body was interred in the cemetery of Cori Alto, near Latina, next to the remains of his mother and his son, Daniele, who predeceased him in 1989 at the age of 24.
Luigi Pistilli was an Italian actor of stage, screen, and television. In theater, he was considered one of the country's best interpreters of Bertolt Brecht's plays in "The Threepenny Opera" and "St. Joan of the Stockyards".
Born in Grosseto, Pistilli studied acting at Milan's Piccolo Teatro, graduating in 1955. He never completely severed his ties with the theater and often returned to appear in plays directed by Giorgio Strehler. Pistilli made his feature film debut with an uncredited role in "Dark Passage" in 1947.
He appeared in many Spaghetti Westerns such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), as the priest brother of Eli Wallach's character Tuco, and in "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) as the cunning second-in-command Groggy, which was his first credited film role. He played the murderous Alberto in the Mario Bava giallo "Twitch of the Death Nerve" in 1971, and had a regular role on the popular Italian television Mafia drama "The Octopus".
In 1972, he appeared in the giallo film "Your Vice Is a Locked Room" and "Only I Have the Key" playing an alcoholic.
Pistilli committed suicide just before he was to appear in the final performance of Terence Rattigan's Tosca on April 21, 1996. The program was panned by critics and audiences and that might have contributed to Pistilli's state of mind. However, according to his suicide note, he had suffered deep despair after making bitter public comments regarding the recent end of a four-year off-stage relationship with singer and actress Milva. In his note he apologized to her for the spiteful statements released in the published interview. Taking a dosage of barbiturates, he hanged himself in his apartment at via Mozart, Milan. He was 66 years of age.
Following the celebration of a funeral mass at the chiesetta di San Babila, his body was interred in the cemetery of Cori Alto, near Latina, next to the remains of his mother and his son, Daniele, who predeceased him in 1989 at the age of 24.
Born in Grosseto, Pistilli studied acting at Milan's Piccolo Teatro, graduating in 1955. He never completely severed his ties with the theater and often returned to appear in plays directed by Giorgio Strehler. Pistilli made his feature film debut with an uncredited role in "Dark Passage" in 1947.
He appeared in many Spaghetti Westerns such as "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), as the priest brother of Eli Wallach's character Tuco, and in "For a Few Dollars More" (1965) as the cunning second-in-command Groggy, which was his first credited film role. He played the murderous Alberto in the Mario Bava giallo "Twitch of the Death Nerve" in 1971, and had a regular role on the popular Italian television Mafia drama "The Octopus".
In 1972, he appeared in the giallo film "Your Vice Is a Locked Room" and "Only I Have the Key" playing an alcoholic.
Pistilli committed suicide just before he was to appear in the final performance of Terence Rattigan's Tosca on April 21, 1996. The program was panned by critics and audiences and that might have contributed to Pistilli's state of mind. However, according to his suicide note, he had suffered deep despair after making bitter public comments regarding the recent end of a four-year off-stage relationship with singer and actress Milva. In his note he apologized to her for the spiteful statements released in the published interview. Taking a dosage of barbiturates, he hanged himself in his apartment at via Mozart, Milan. He was 66 years of age.
Following the celebration of a funeral mass at the chiesetta di San Babila, his body was interred in the cemetery of Cori Alto, near Latina, next to the remains of his mother and his son, Daniele, who predeceased him in 1989 at the age of 24.
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