1. Raffaele Vallone was an Italian actor and footballer.
21 Facts About Raf Vallone
1. 2.
Raf Vallone played the role of Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge several times, including Sidney Lumet's 1962 film adaptation, for which he won the David di Donatello for Best Actor.
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Raf Vallone attended Liceo classico Cavour and studied law and philosophy at the University of Turin, where his professors included Leone Ginzburg and future President Luigi Einaudi.
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In 1941, Raf Vallone became the culture editor for the culture section of L'Unita, then the official newspaper of the Italian Communist Party, and a film and drama critic for the Turin newspaper La Stampa.
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Raf Vallone was arrested and incarcerated in Como, but escaped during a prisoner transfer, swimming across Lake Como in the process.
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Raf Vallone began playing professionally in 1934 while still a law student, entering Serie A for Torino as a midfielder.
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Raf Vallone made his film debut in 1942 as an extra in We the Living, but he was not initially interested in an acting career.
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The film became a neorealist classic and Raf Vallone was launched on an international career.
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Raf Vallone played rugged, romantic leading men in the 1950s, including in Anna and The Beach, both directed by Alberto Lattuada; Pietro Germi's The Crossroads, and Giuseppe De Santis' Rome 11:00.
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Raf Vallone played Giuseppe Garibaldi, opposite Anna Magnani as Anita Garibaldi, in Francesco Rosi's directorial debut Red Shirts.
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Raf Vallone was the male lead in Vittorio De Sica's Two Women, which earned its star Sophia Loren the Academy Award for Best Actress.
12.
Raf Vallone played opposite Maria Schell in two West German films, Love and Rose Bernd, and was cast by French director Marcel Carne in Therese Raquin.
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Raf Vallone played opposite Sara Montiel in The Violet Seller, a musical that was the most internationally successful Spanish-language film released up to that point.
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Raf Vallone made his American film debut opposite Charlton Heston in the historical epic El Cid, as Count Ordonez.
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Raf Vallone had a late-career boost when Francis Ford Coppola cast him as Cardinal Lamberto, the future Pope John Paul I, in The Godfather Part III.
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On stage, Raf Vallone was known for his association with playwright Arthur Miller, notably as Eddie Carbone in A View from the Bridge.
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Raf Vallone first played the role in Peter Brook's acclaimed 1958 staging in Paris at the Theatre Antoine-Simone Berriau.
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Raf Vallone reprised it for Sidney Lumet's 1962 film adaptation, which earned him the David di Donatello for Best Actor; a 1966 ITV Play of the Week, a 1967 Italian staging that he directed, and a 1973 version for Italian television.
19.
Raf Vallone was married to actress Elena Varzi from 1952 until his death.
20.
Raf Vallone died from a heart attack in Rome on 31 October 2002.
21.
Raf Vallone's body was buried at his family chapel in the municipal cemetery of Tropea, his birthplace.