Marcello Mastroianni Biography: Death, Age, Daughters, Net Worth, Wife, Movies, Awards, Height, TV Shows

Marcello Mastroianni was an iconic Italian actor whose name is synonymous with the Golden Age of Italian cinema.

He gained immense international popularity not for a single specific film initially, but through his collaboration with director Federico Fellini in the critically acclaimed movie La dolce vita (1960), in which he played the melancholic, world-weary journalist Marcello Rubini.

This role cemented his image as the sophisticated, quintessential “Latin lover” figure, a persona he spent the rest of his versatile career both embodying and playfully dismantling.

Profile

• Full Name: Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni
• Date of Birth: September 28, 1924
• Age: Deceased
• Gender: Male
• Place of Birth: Fontana Liri, Frosinone, Lazio, Italy
• Nationality: Italian
• Profession: Actor
• Height: 1.78 m
• Eye Color: Brown
• Hair Color: Dark Brown / Grey (later in life)
• Parents: Ottone Mastroianni and Ida Irolle
• Siblings: Ruggero Mastroianni
• Spouse: Flora Carabella (married 1950, separated mid-1960s, remained legally married until death)
• Children: Barbara Mastroianni, Chiara Mastroianni
• Relationship Status: Widower at the time of death
• Religion: Catholic
• Ethnicity: Italian
• Net Worth: $5 million

Early Life and Education

Marcello Vincenzo Domenico Mastroianni was born on September 28, 1924, in Fontana Liri, a small village in the Apennines. He was the son of Ottone Mastroianni, a carpenter, and Ida Irolle.

Shortly after his birth, his family moved to Turin, and later settled in Rome. He grew up alongside his younger brother, Ruggero Mastroianni, who would go on to have a successful career as a film editor, working frequently on his brother’s films.

His ethnicity was Italian, and he was raised in a Catholic household.

During the Second World War, Mastroianni was interred in a German prison camp. He managed to escape captivity during a chaotic period around 1943 or 1944 and successfully hid in Venice until the war concluded.

After the war, he attended the Sapienza University of Rome, where he pursued studies in Architecture. While attending university, he began participating in student theatre groups, which served as his initial foray into acting.

Personal Life

Marcello Mastroianni‘s personal life was characterized by numerous high-profile relationships, despite remaining legally married to the actress Flora Carabella from August 12, 1950, until his death.

The couple separated in the mid-1960s but never formally divorced. Together they had one daughter, Barbara Mastroianni, born in 1951, who later became a costume designer.

Mastroianni was well known for several significant romantic affairs.

His most internationally publicized relationship was with the French actress Catherine Deneuve, whom he met on the set of the film Liza (1972). Their relationship lasted four years and produced a second daughter, Chiara Mastroianni, born in 1972, who is an accomplished actress herself.

Other notable romantic partners included actresses Faye Dunaway and Anouk Aimée.

Career

Mastroianni began his film career in 1939 as an extra. His acting career took off in the late 1940s after he was discovered by director Luchino Visconti, who cast him in stage productions and films.

His breakthrough into international stardom occurred with Federico Fellini‘s La dolce vita (1960), which led to a lifelong collaborative partnership between the two. He demonstrated remarkable versatility, moving effortlessly from high-brow art house cinema to popular Italian comedies.

He received his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for the satirical film Divorce Italian Style (1961).

He formed one of cinema’s most enduring duos with Sophia Loren, starring opposite her in 14 films, including Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963) and Marriage Italian Style (1964).

Throughout his career, Mastroianni worked with nearly every major Italian director, including Vittorio De Sica, Michelangelo Antonioni, and Ettore Scola.

He earned two more Academy Award nominations for his work in A Special Day (1977) and the Russian film Dark Eyes (1987), making him the only actor nominated for Best Actor in a foreign-language film three times.

He acted in over 170 films during his career.

Awards

• Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor (Divorce Italian Style) (1962)
• Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor (Dark Eyes) (1987)
• BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor (Divorce Italian Style) (1963)
• BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) (1965)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Divorce Italian Style) (1963)
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow) (1964)
• Academy Award Nomination Best Actor (Divorce Italian Style) (1963)
• Academy Award Nomination Best Actor (A Special Day) (1978)
• Academy Award Nomination Best Actor (Dark Eyes) (1988)

Net Worth

Marcello Mastroianni‘s net worth at the time of his death in 1996 was around $5 million. Earned from his status as one of the highest-paid and most prolific European actors of his era, spanning a six-decade career in over 170 films.

Death

Marcello Mastroianni died at the age of 72 on December 19, 1996, in Paris, France. He had been battling pancreatic cancer.

His daughters, Barbara Mastroianni and Chiara Mastroianni, and his former partner Catherine Deneuve were reportedly at his bedside when he passed away. Following his death, the Trevi Fountain in Rome famous from the iconic scene with Anita Ekberg in La dolce vita was symbolically turned off and draped in black mourning crepe in his memory.

He was buried in the Campo Verano cemetery in Rome.

Social Media

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Filmography

• I miserabili (1948)
• Augustine of Hippo (1972)
• Liza (1972)
• Divorce Italian Style (1961)
• La dolce vita (1960)
• 8½ (1963)
• Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (1963)
• Marriage Italian Style (1964)
• A Special Day (1977)
• Ginger and Fred (1985)
• Dark Eyes (1987)