Vittorio De Sica Biography

Italian film director and actor (1901–1974)"De Sica" redirects here. For Vittorio De Sica's sons, see Christian De Sica and Manuel De Sica.In this Romance language name, the surname is De Sica, not Sica.

Vittorio De Sica (/də ˈsiːkə/ də SEE-kə, Italian: ; 7 July 1901 – 13 November 1974) was an Italian film director and actor, a leading figure in the neorealist movement.

Widely considered one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, four of the films he directed won Academy Awards: Sciuscià and Bicycle Thieves (honorary), while Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and Il giardino dei Finzi Contini won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Indeed, the great critical success of Sciuscià (the first foreign film to be so recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) and Bicycle Thieves helped establish the permanent Best Foreign Film Award. These two films are considered part of the canon of cl*ic cinema. Bicycle Thieves was deemed the greatest film of all time by Sight & Sound magazine's poll of filmmakers and critics in 1958, and was cited by Turner Cl*ic Movies as one of the 15 most influential films in cinema history.

De Sica was also nominated for the 1957 Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for playing Major Rinaldi in American director Charles Vidor's 1957 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, a movie that was panned by critics and proved a box office flop. De Sica's acting was considered the highlight of the film.

Life and career

De Sica in the late 1920s

De Sica was born on 7 July 1901 in Sora, Lazio, the son of Neapolitan parents. His father was an officer of the Bank of Italy, and was transferred from Naples to Sora, Italy. De Sica began his career as a theatre actor in the early 1920s and joined Tatiana Pavlova's theatre company in 1923. In 1933 he founded his own company with the actress, Giuditta Rissone, who later became his wife, and Sergio Tofano. The company performed mostly light comedies, but they also staged plays by Beaumarchais and worked with famous directors like Luchino Visconti.

His meeting with the screenwriter Cesare Zavattini was a very important event: together they created some of the most celebrated films of the neorealistic age, like Sciuscià (Shoeshine) and Bicycle Thieves (released as The Bicycle Thief in America), both of which De Sica directed.

De Sica appeared in the British television series The Four Just Men (1959).

Personal life

His p*ion for gambling was well known and because of it, he often lost large sums of money and accepted work that might not otherwise have interested him. He never kept his gambling a secret from anyone; in fact, he projected it on characters in his own movies, like Count Max (which he acted in but did not direct) and The Gold of Naples, as well as in General Della Rovere, a film directed by Rossellini in which De Sica played the *le role.

In 1937 Vittorio De Sica married the actress Giuditta Rissone, who gave birth to their daughter, Emilia (Emi). In 1942, on the set of Un garibaldino al convento, he met Spanish actress María Mercader (cousin of Ramon Mercader, Leon Trotsky's **in), with whom he started a relationship. After divorcing Rissone in France in 1954, he married Mercader in 1959 in Mexico, but this union was not considered valid under Italian law. In 1968 he obtained French citizenship and married Mercader in Paris. Meanwhile, he had already had two sons with her: Manuel, in 1949, a musician, and Christian, in 1951, who would follow his father's path as an actor and director.

He was a Roman Catholic and a communist. Although divorced, De Sica never parted from his first family. He led a double family life, with double celebrations on holidays. It is said that, at Christmas and on New Year's Eve, he used to put back the clocks by two hours in Mercader's house so that he could make a toast at midnight with both families. His first wife agreed to keep up the facade of a marriage so as not to leave her daughter without a father.

Vittorio De Sica died at 73 after surgery due to lung cancer at the Neuilly-sur-Seine hospital in Paris.

Awards and nominations

Vittorio De Sica was given the Interfilm Grand Prix in 1971 by the Berlin International Film Festival.

Miracolo a Milano
- Cannes Film Festival Palme d'Or Winner
Umberto D.
- Cannes Film Festival Official Selection
Stazione Termini
- Cannes Film Festival Official Selection
L'oro di Napoli
- Cannes Film Festival Official Selection
Il Tetto
- Cannes Film Festival OCIC Award Winner
Anna di Brooklyn
- Berlin International Film Festival Official Selection
La Ciociara
- Cannes Film Festival Official Selection
Matrimonio all'italiana
- Moscow International Film Festival Official Selection
Il Giardino dei Finzi-Contini
- Berlin International Film Festival Golden Bear Winner
- Berlin International Film Festival Interfilm Award Winner – Otto Dibelius Film Award
Nastro d'Argento for Best Director 1946 for Sciuscià
Academy Award 1947 Honorary Award to the Italian production for Sciuscià (Shoeshine)
Academy Award 1949 Special Foreign Language Film Award for Bicycle Thieves
BAFTA (British Academy Award) 1950 Best film Bicycle Thieves
Academy Award 1965 Best Foreign Language film for Ieri, oggi, domani (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow)
Academy Award 1972 Best Foreign Language film for Il giardino dei Finzi-Contini

Filmography

Directing credits

Acting credits

Il processo Clemenceau (1917, by Alfredo De Antoni) as Pierre Clémenceau bambino
La bellezza del mondo (1927, by Mario Almirante)
La compagnia dei matti (1928, by Mario Almirante) as Prof. Rosolillo
La vecchia signora (1932, by Amleto Palermi) as Il fine dicitore
Gli uomini, che mascalzoni! (1932, by Mario Camerini) as Bruno
Due cuori felici (1932, by Bald*arre Negroni) as Mister Brown
Paprika (1933, by Carl Boese)
Pasa el amor (1933, by Adolf Trotz)
Lisetta (1934, by Carl Boese) as Fritz Peters
La canzone del sole (1934, by Max Neufeld (he stars too the German version *les Das lied der sonne)) as Dr. Giuseppe Paladino
Un cattivo soggetto (1933, by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia) as Willy
La segretaria per tutti (1933, by Amleto Palermi) as Un gagà
Tempo m*imo (1934, by Mario Mattoli) as Il professore Giacomo Banti
Il signore desidera? (1934, by Gennaro Righelli) as Martino
The Song of the Sun (1934, by Max Neufeld) as Paladino, il avvocato
Darò un milione (1935, by Mario Camerini) as Gold
Amo te sola (1936, by Mario Mattoli) as Prof. Giovanni Agano
Non ti conosco più (1936, by Nunzio Malasomma) as Il dottore Alberto Spinelli
Lohengrin (1936, by Nunzio Malasomma) as Alfredo
L'uomo che sorride (1937, by Mario Mattoli) as Pio Fardella
Il signor Max (1937, by Mario Camerini) as Gianni / Max Varaldo
But It's Nothing Serious (1937, by Mario Camerini) as Memmo Speranza
Naples of Olden Times (1938, by Amleto Palermi) as Mario Esposito
La mazurka di papà (1938, by Oreste Biancoli) as Stefano San Mauro / Il figlio di San Mauro
Il Trionfo dell'amore (1938, by Mario Mattoli) as Vincenzo
The Cuckoo Clock (1938, by Camillo Mastrocinque) as Il capitano Ducci
Departure (1938, by Amleto Palermi) as Paolo Veronda
They've Kidnapped a Man (1938, by Gennaro Righelli) as L'attore cinematografico
Ai vostri ordini, signora! (1939, by Mario Mattoli) as Pietro Haguet
Naples That Never Die (1939, by Amleto Palermi)
Questi ragazzi (1939, by Mario Mattoli) as Vincenzo
Castles in the Air (1939, by Augusto Genina (He stars too the German version Ins blaue leben)) as Riccardo Pietramola
Department Store (1939, by Mario Camerini) as Bruno Zacchi
It Always Ends That Way (1939, by Enrique Telémaco Susini) as Alberto Miller
Manon Lescaut (1940, by Carmine Gallone) as Renato Des Grieux
Two on a Vacation (1940, by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia) as Il conte Corrado Valli
Red Roses (1940, by Giuseppe Amato and Vittorio De Sica) as Alberto Verani
The Two Mothers (1940, by Amleto Palermi) as Salvatore
The Sinner (1940, by Amleto Palermi) as Pietro Bandelli
Maddalena, Zero for Conduct (1940, by Vittorio De Sica) as Alfredo Hartman
The Adventuress from the Floor Above (1941, by Raffaello Matarazzo (script too, not credited)) as Fabrizio Marchini
Teresa Venerdì (1941, by Vittorio De Sica) as Dott. Pietro Vignali
Se io fossi onesto (1942, by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia (script too)) as Pietro Kovach
A Garibaldian in the Convent (1942, by Vittorio De Sica) as Nino Bixio (uncredited)
La guardia del corpo (1942, by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia (script too)) as Riccardo, L'investigatore privato
Non sono superstizioso... ma! (1943, by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia (script too)) as Il barone Roberto
I nostri sogni (1943, by Vittorio Cottafavi (script too)) as Leo
Nessuno torna indietro (1945, by Alessandro Blasetti) as Maurizio
L'ippocampo (1945, by Gian Paolo Rosmino (script too, and *istant to director, not credited)) as Pio Sandi
Vivere ancora (1945, by Nino Giannini)
Lo sbaglio di essere vivo (1945, by Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia) as Adriano Lari
Rome, Free City (1946, by Marcello Pagliero) as Il signore distinto
Abb*o la ricchezza! (1946, by Gennaro Righelli (story and script too)) as Il conte Ghirani
Natale al campo 119 (1947, regia di Pietro Francisci (script too and supervision director, not credited)) as Don Vicenzino
Sperduti nel buio (1947, by Camillo Mastrocinque) as Nunzio
Lo Sconosciuto di San Marino (1948, by Michal Waszynski and Vittorio Cottafavi) as Leo, l'ateo
Cuore (1948, by Duilio Coletti (producer and script too)) as Professor Perboni
Il mondo vuole così (1949, by Giorgio Bianchi) as Paolo Morelli
Domani è troppo tardi (1949, by Léonide Moguy (consulting director too, not credited)) as Il professor Landi
Cameriera bella presenza offresi... (1951, by Giorgio Pàstina) as Leonardo Leonardi
Mamma Mia, What an Impression! (1951, by Roberto Savarese)
Buongiorno, elefante! (1952, by Gianni Franciolini (producer too)) as Carlo Caretti
Gli uomini non guardano il cielo (1952, by Umberto Scarpelli)
In Olden Days (1952, by Alessandro Blasetti) as L'Avvocato Difensore (segment "Il processo di Frine")
The Earrings of Madame de... (1953, by Max Ophüls) as Baron Fabrizio Donati
Villa Borghese (1953, by Gianni Franciolini) as L'avvocato Arturo Cavazzuti (segment: Incidente a Villa Borghese)
Pane, amore e fantasia (1953, by Luigi Comencini) as Maresciallo Carotenuto
Il matrimonio (1954, by Antonio Petrucci) as Gregory Stefanovich Smirnov
Cento anni d'amore (1954, by Lionello De Felice) as Duke Giovanni del Bagno aka Signor Pallini (segment "Pendolin")
Gran Varietà (1954, by Domenico Paolella) as Veneziani - il fine dicitore (segment "Il censore")
A Slice of Life (1954, by Alessandro Blasetti et Paul Paviot) as Il conte Ferdinando (segment "Don Corradino")
Il letto (1954, by Gianni Franciolini) as Roberto (segment "Divorce, Le")
Vergine moderna (1954, by Marcello Pagliero) as Antonio Valli
Allegro squadrone (1954, by Paolo Moffa) as Il generale
Pane, amore e gelosia (1954, by Luigi Comencini) as Maresciallo Carotenuto
L'oro di Napoli (1954, by Vittorio De Sica) as Il conte Prospero B. (segment "I giocatori") (uncredited)
Peccato che sia una canaglia (1954, by Alessandro Blasetti) as Vittorio Stroppiani
Il segno di Venere (1955, by Dino Risi) as Alessio Spano
Gli ultimi cinque minuti (1955, by Giuseppe Amato) as Carlo Reani
La bella mugnaia (1955, by Mario Camerini) as Don Teofilo - governatore
Racconti romani (1955, by Gianni Franciolini) as Avvocato Mazzoni Baralla
Pane, amore e... (1955, by Dino Risi) as Comandante Carotenuto
Lucky to Be a Woman (1955, by Alessandro Blasetti) as Minor Role (uncredited)
Il bigamo (1956, by Luciano Emmer) as L'onorevole Principe / Attorney Principe
I giorni più belli (1956, by Mario Mattoli)
Mio figlio Nerone (1956, by Steno) as Seneca
Tempo di villeggiatura (1956, by Antonio Racioppi) as Aristide Rossi
The Monte Carlo Story (1956, by Samuel Taylor and Giulio Macchi (director's *istant too)) as Count Dino della Fiaba
Noi siamo le colonne (1956, by Luigi Filippo D'Amico) as Alfredo Celimontani
Padri e figli (1957, by Mario Monicelli) as Vincenzo Corallo
I colpevoli (1957, by Turi Vasile) as Giorgio
Souvenir d'Italie (1957, by Antonio Pietrangeli) as The Count
Count Max (1957, by Giorgio Bianchi) as Conte Max Orsini Varaldo
Casinò de Paris (1957, by André Hunebelle) as Alexandre Gordy
La donna che venne dal mare (1957, by Francesco De Robertis (1957) as Console Bordogin
Il medico e lo stregone (1957, by Mario Monicelli) as Antonio Locoratolo
A Farewell to Arms (1957, directed by Charles Vidor (Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor) as Major Alessandro Rinaldi
Vacanze a Ischia (1957, by Mario Camerini) as Ingegner Occhipinti
Totò, Vittorio e la dottoressa (1957, by Camillo Mastrocinque) as Marchese De Vitti
Amore e chiacchiere (1958, by Alessandro Blasetti) as Avvocato Bonelli
Domenica è sempre domenica (1958, by Camillo Mastrocinque) as Comandante Castaldi
Anna of Brooklyn (1958, by Carlo Lastricati and Vittorio De Sica) as Don Luigi
Pezzo, capopezzo e capitano: (1958, by Wolfgang Staudte) as Il comandante Ernesto De Rossi
Ballerina e buon Dio (1958, by Antonio Leonviola) as God
Gli zitelloni (1958, by Giorgio Bianchi) as Il professore
Pane, amore e Andalusia (1958, by Javier Setó (director's *istant too)) as Maresciallo Carotenuto
La ragazza di Piazza San Pietro (1958, by Piero Costa) as Armando Conforti
La prima notte (1959, by Alberto Cavalcanti) as Alfredo
Il nemico di mia moglie (1959, by Gianni Puccini) as Ottavio Terenzi, padre di Marco
Uomini e nobiluomini (1959, by Giorgio Bianchi) as Marchese Nicola Peccori Macinelli di Afragola
Vacanze d'inverno (1959, by Camillo Mastrocinque) as Maurice
Il mondo dei miracoli (1959, by Luigi Capuano) as Director Pietro Giordani
Il moralista (1959, by Giorgio Bianchi) as The O. I. M. P. President
Il generale della Rovere (1959, by Roberto Rossellini) as Bardone AKA 'Grimaldi'
Ferdinando I, re di Napoli (1959, by Gianni Franciolini) as Salvatore Caputo
Nel blu dipinto di blu (1959, by Piero Tellini) as Spartaco
Policarpo, ufficiale di scrittura (1959, by Mario Soldati)
Gastone (1960, by Mario Bonnard) as The prince
The Angel Wore Red (1960, by Nunnally Johnson and Mario Russo) as Gen. Clave
Austerlitz (1960, by Abel Gance) as Pope Pius VII
It Started in Naples (1960, by Melville Shavelson) as Mario Vitale
Le tre eccetera del colonnello (1960, by Claude Boissol) as Colonel Belalcazar
Le pillole di Ercole (1960, by Luciano Salce) as Piero Cuocolo
The Millionairess (1960, by Anthony Asquith) as Joe
Il vigile (1960, by Luigi Zampa) as Il sindaco
Un amore a Roma (1960, by Dino Risi) as Director
Gli attendenti (1961, by Giorgio Bianchi) as Attore di Fumetti
L'onorata società (1961, by Riccardo Pazzaglia) as Salvatore, the 'Capintesta'
Vive Henri IV, vive l'amour (1961, by Claude Autant-Lara) as L'amb*adeur d'Espagne
The Last Judgment (1961, director) as Defense lawyer
The Wonders of Aladdin (1961, by Mario Bava and Henry Levin) as Genie
Gli incensurati (1961, by Francesco Giaculli) as Colonnello Filippo Bitossi
I due marescialli (1961, by Sergio Corbucci) as Maresciallo Vittorio Cottone
La Fayette (1962, by Jean Dréville) as Bancroft
Eva (1962, by Joseph Losey and Guidarino Guidi) (uncredited)
The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965, by Terence Young) as The Count
Io, io, io... e gli altri (1966, by Alessandro Blasetti) as Commendator Trepossi
Un italiano in America (1967, by Alberto Sordi) as Giuseppe's Father
After the Fox (1966, director) as Himself (uncredited)
Gli altri, gli altri e noi (1967, by Maurizio Arena)
The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968, by Ken Annakin) as Cesare Celli
Darling Caroline (1968, by Denys de la Patellière) as Le comte de Bièvre - le père de Caroline
The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968, by Michael Anderson) as Cardinal Rinaldi
If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969, by Mel Stuart) as Shoemaker
The Thirteen Chairs (1969, by Nicolas Gessner and Luciano Lucignani) as Carlo De Seta - The Commendatore
Cose di Cosa Nostra (1970, by Steno) as Don Michele
Io non-vedo, tu non-parli, lui non-sente (1971, by Mario Camerini) as Player in Venice casino
Trastevere (1971, by Fausto Tozzi) as Enrico Formichi
Siamo tutti in libertà provvisoria (1972, by Manlio Scarpelli) as Giuseppe Mancini 'Pulcinella'
Ettore lo fusto (1972, by Enzo G. Castellari) as Giove
Snow Job (1972, by George Englund) as Enrico Dolphi
L'odeur des fauves (1972, by Richard Balducci) as Milord
Le avventure di Pinocchio (1972, by Luigi Comencini (both Film and TV versions)) as Il giudice
The Small Miracle (1973, TV Movie, by Jeannot Szwarc) as Father Damico
Storia de fratelli e de cortelli (1973, by Mario Amendola) as Maresciallo Cenciarelli
Il delitto Matteotti (1973, by Florestano Vancini) as Mauro Del Giudice
Viaggia, ragazza, viaggia, hai la musica nelle vene (1973, by Pasquale Squitieri)
Blood for Dracula (1974, by Paul Morrissey and Antonio Margheriti) as Il Marchese Di Fiore
C'eravamo tanto amati (1974, by Ettore Scola) as Himself
Intorno (1974, Short, by Manuel De Sica)
L'eroe (1976, TV Movie, by Manuel De Sica) (final film role)

Note: on many sources, Fontana di Trevi by Carlo Campogalliani (1960) and La bonne soupe by Robert Thomas (1964) are included but de Sica does not appear in those films.

Television appearances as actor

The Four Just Men, by Sapphire Films (1959) (10 of the 39 episodes made)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vittorio De Sica.

Vittorio De Sica at IMDb
Vittorio De Sica director bio for The Garden of the Finzi-Continis Sony Pictures Entertainment website, retrieved 8 April 2006
Vittorio De Sica Review Wall Street Journal article, retrieved 9 March 2013

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