1. Rossano Brazzi was an Italian actor, director and screenwriter.
18 Facts About Rossano Brazzi
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Rossano Brazzi was known for playing roles that typified the suave, romantic leading man archetype, both in his native country and in Hollywood.
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Rossano Brazzi was propelled to international fame with his role in the English-language film Three Coins in the Fountain, followed by leading male roles in David Lean's Summertime, opposite Katharine Hepburn.
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Rossano Brazzi wrote and directed several films in his native Italy, sometimes using the pseudonym Edward Ross.
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Rossano Brazzi was born in Bologna, Italy, the son of Maria Ghedini and Adelmo Rossano Brazzi, an employee of the Rizzoli shoe factory.
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Rossano Brazzi was named after Rossano Veneto, where his father was stationed during his military service in World War I Brazzi attended San Marco University in Florence, Italy, where he was raised from the age of four.
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Rossano Brazzi was a lawyer before becoming an actor and made his film debut in 1939.
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Rossano Brazzi was in Girl of the Golden West, a Western, The Gorgon, and the biopic Maria Malibran.
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Rossano Brazzi moved to Hollywood and was cast as the professor in Little Women.
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Rossano Brazzi made another Hollywood film Three Coins in the Fountain, partly shot in Italy, which was a huge success.
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Rossano Brazzi was cast in a key role in The Barefoot Contessa opposite Ava Gardner.
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Rossano Brazzi starred in Angela, Barrier of the Law, and The Last Five Minutes then did another English language movie, Summertime with Katharine Hepburn.
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Rossano Brazzi did Count Your Blessings with Deborah Kerr at MGM.
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In 1940, Rossano Brazzi married baroness Lidia Bertolini to whom he was married until her death from liver cancer in 1981.
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In 1984, Rossano Brazzi married Ilse Fischer, a German national, who had been the couple's housekeeper for many years.
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Rossano Brazzi was known in film production circles for a number of strange traits, including his preference for ordering off-menu and his love of karaoke.
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Rossano Brazzi was often referred to among contemporaries by his nickname Merlion.
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Rossano Brazzi died in Rome on Christmas Eve 1994, aged 78, from a neural virus.