Raf Vallone facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Raf Vallone
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![]() Vallone in Bitter Rice (1949)
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Born |
Raffaele Vallone
17 February 1916 Tropea, Calabria, Italy
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Died | 31 October 2002 Rome, Italy
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(aged 86)||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alma mater | University of Turin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Occupation | Actor, football player, journalist | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years active | 1942–2000 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Spouse(s) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Children | 3, including Eleonora (b. 1955) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Awards | 1962 David di Donatello for Best Actor (A View from the Bridge) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Honours | ![]() |
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Raffaele Vallone (born February 17, 1916 – died October 31, 2002), known as Raf Vallone, was a famous Italian actor and a professional football player. He was one of Italy's biggest male movie stars in the 1950s and 1960s. He first became known for his work in the neorealist film style. This style showed real-life stories and often used non-professional actors.
Raf Vallone also became successful in many movies made outside of Italy. On stage, he was well-known for acting in plays by Arthur Miller. He played the main character, Eddie Carbone, in the play A View from the Bridge many times. He also starred in the 1962 movie version of the play, directed by Sidney Lumet. For this role, he won the David di Donatello for Best Actor award, which is a top Italian film award.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Raf Vallone was born in Tropea, a town in Calabria, Italy. His father was a lawyer. When Raf was young, his family moved to Turin. He went to Liceo classico Cavour, a high school, and then studied law and philosophy at the University of Turin. Some of his teachers were famous people, including Leone Ginzburg and Luigi Einaudi, who later became the President of Italy. After finishing college, he worked at his father's law firm.
In 1941, Vallone started working as a culture editor for L'Unità, a newspaper that was linked to the Italian Communist Party. He also wrote movie and play reviews for another Turin newspaper called La Stampa. Vallone was against fascism, a type of government that has a dictator and controls everything. In 1943, he joined a group called Giustizia e Libertà that fought against the fascist government. He was arrested and put in jail in Como, but he managed to escape during a transfer by swimming across Lake Como.
Football Career
Vallone loved playing association football (soccer) from a young age. He was part of a youth football club in Turin and won a championship with them in the 1930–31 season. He started playing professionally in 1934 while he was still studying law. He joined Torino F.C. in Serie A, which is Italy's top football league. He played as a midfielder.
In the 1935–36 season, he won the Coppa Italia (Italian Cup) with his team. He also played for Novara in the 1939–40 season. He stopped playing professional football after 1941.
Acting Career Highlights
Vallone first appeared in a movie in 1942 as an extra in We the Living. However, he wasn't planning to become an actor at first. But in 1949, he was cast in the movie Riso amaro (Bitter Rice). In this film, he played a soldier who was competing with Vittorio Gassman for the love of Silvana Mangano.
Bitter Rice became a very important neorealist movie. This role launched Vallone's career and made him famous around the world. In the 1950s, he often played strong, romantic main characters. Some of his notable films from this period include Anna (1951) and The Beach (1954). He also starred in The Crossroads (1951) and Rome 11:00 (1952).
He played Giuseppe Garibaldi, a famous Italian general, in the movie Red Shirts (1952). He was also the main male actor in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women. This movie helped its star, Sophia Loren, win an Academy Award for Best Actress. People often compared Vallone's acting style to that of Burt Lancaster, another famous actor.
Vallone also worked in movies made in other parts of Europe. He acted with Maria Schell in two German films, Love (1956) and Rose Bernd (1957). French director Marcel Carné cast him in Thérèse Raquin (1953). In 1956, he starred in The Violet Seller, a Spanish musical that became very successful internationally.
His first American movie was the historical film El Cid (1961), where he acted alongside Charlton Heston. He then appeared in many other American films, including Phaedra (1962), The Cardinal (1963), The Italian Job (1969), and Lion of the Desert (1980). Later in his career, he had a significant role as Cardinal Lamberto, who becomes Pope John Paul I, in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part III (1990).
On stage, Raf Vallone was especially known for his work in plays by Arthur Miller, particularly A View from the Bridge. He first played the role of Eddie Carbone in a famous 1958 production in Paris. He played the role again in the 1962 movie version, which won him an award. He also performed it for television and directed a stage production in 1980.
In 1994, he received a special honor from Italy, being made a Knight's Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. This was for his important contributions to the arts.
Personal Life
Raf Vallone was married to actress Elena Varzi from 1952 until he passed away. They had three children. Two of their children, Eleonora Vallone (born 1955) and Saverio Vallone (born 1958), also became actors. The family lived for many years in a house built near Sperlonga, Italy.
Vallone believed in communism for much of his life. However, he was never an official member of the Italian Communist Party because he disagreed with some of its ideas.
In 2001, he wrote a book about his life called L'alfabeto della memoria.
Death
Raf Vallone died from a heart attack in Rome on October 31, 2002. He was buried in his family's chapel in the cemetery of Tropea, the town where he was born.
Filmography
- We the Living (1942) as A sailor
- Bitter Rice (1949) as Marco
- No Peace Under the Olive Tree (1950) as Francesco Dominici
- The White Line (1950) as Domenico
- Path of Hope (1950) as Saro Cammarata
- The Crossroads (1951) as Aldo Marchi
- The Forbidden Christ (1951) as Bruno Baldi
- Anna (1951) as Andrea
- Rome 11:00 (1952) as Carlo
- The Adventures of Mandrin (1952) as Mandrin
- Red Shirts (1952) as Giuseppe Garibaldi
- The Eyes Leave a Trace (1952) as Martín Jordán
- Sunday Heroes (1952) as Gino Bardi
- Carne inquieta (1952) as Peppe Lamia
- Perdonami! (1953) as Marco Gerace
- Thérèse Raquin (1953) as Laurent
- Destini di donne (Destinées) (1954) as Callias (segment "Lysistrata")
- The Beach (1954) as Silvio, the Pontorno's Mayor
- Storm (1954) as Andrea
- Obsession (1954) as Aldo Giovanni
- Human Torpedoes (1954) as Commandant Carlo Ferri
- The Sign of Venus (1955) as Ignazio Bolognini
- Andrea Chénier (1955) as Gérard
- Il segreto di Suor Angela (Le Secret de soeur Angèle) (1956) as Marcello Maglione
- L'isola delle capre (Les Possédées) (1955) as Angelo
- Love (1956) as Andrea Ambaros
- Rose Bernd (1957) as Arthur Streckmann
- Guendalina (1957) as Guido Redaelli, padre di Guendalina
- The Violet Seller (1958) as Fernando
- La venganza (1958) as Luis 'El Torcido'
- La trappola si chiude (Le Piège) (1958) as Gino Carsone
- Recours en grâce (1960) as Mario Di Donati
- Two Women (1960) as Giovanni
- La Garçonnière (1960) as Alberto Fiorini
- El Cid (1961) as Count Ordóñez
- A View From the Bridge (1962) as Eddie Carbone
- Phaedra (1962) as Thanos
- The Cardinal (1963) as Cardinal Quarenghi
- The Secret Invasion (1964) as Roberto Rocca - Organizer
- La scoperta dell'America (1964)
- Una voglia da morire (1965) as Suo Marito
- Harlow (1965) as Marino Bello
- Nevada Smith (1966) as Father Zaccardi
- Se tutte le donne del mondo (1966) as Mr. Ardonian
- The Desperate Ones (1967) as Victor
- Volver a vivir (1967) as Luis Rubio
- 1001 Nights (1968)
- La Esclava del paraíso (1968) as Hixxum
- The Italian Job (1969) as Altabani
- The Kremlin Letter (1970) as Puppet Maker
- La morte risale a ieri sera (1970) as Amanzio Berzaghi
- Cannon for Cordoba (1970) as Cordoba
- A Gunfight (1971) as Francisco Álvarez
- Perché non ci lasciate in pace? (1971)
- The Summertime Killer (1972) as Lazzaro Alfredi
- Un tipo con una faccia strana ti cerca per ucciderti (1973)
- Honor Thy Father (1973) (TV) as Joseph Bonanno
- Catholics (1973) as Father General
- Simona (1974) as L'oncle de Marcelle
- Small Miracle (1974) (TV) as Father Superior
- La Casa della paura (1974) as Mr. Dreese
- Rosebud (1975) as George Nikolaos
- That Lucky Touch (1975) as Gen. Peruzzi
- The Human Factor (1975) as Dr. Lupo
- Decadenza (1975)
- Marco Visconti (1975, TV series) as Marco Visconti
- The Other Side of Midnight (1977) as Constantin Demeris
- The Devil's Advocate (1978) as Bishop Aurelio
- The Greek Tycoon (1978) as Spyros Tomasis
- An Almost Perfect Affair (1979) as Federico 'Freddie' Barone
- Retour à Marseille (1980) as Michel - un émigré de retour à Marseille
- Lion of the Desert (1980) as Colonel Diodiece
- Sezona mira u Parizu (1981)
- I Remember Nelson (1982, TV series) - Caracciolo
- A Time to Die (1982) as Genco Bari
- The Scarlet and the Black (1983, TV Movie) as Father Vittorio
- Christopher Columbus (1985, TV Mini-Series) as José Vizinho
- Power of Evil (1985) as Laboratory director
- Der Bierkönig (1990, TV Movie) as Der Baron
- The Godfather Part III (1990) as Cardinal Lamberto
- A Season of Giants (1990, TV Movie) as Spanish Ambassador
- Julianus barát I (1991) as Archbishop Ugrin
- Julianus barát II (1991) as Archbishop Ugrin
- Julianus barát III (1991) as Archbishop Ugrin
- The First Circle (1991, TV Movie) as Pyotr Makaraguine
- Mit dem Herzen einer Mutter (1992, TV Movie) as Federico De' Conti
- Toni (1999) as Le vieux / The Old Man
- Vino santo (2000, TV Movie) as Nonno (final film role)
See also
In Spanish: Raf Vallone para niños