Giancarlo Giannini

A soulful performer in international productions since the 1960s, actor Giancarlo Giannini was a staple of the arthouse cinema scene in his native Italy before expanding to American features and even TV movies in the 1980s and beyond. His melancholic demeanor made him ideal for downtrodden Everymen or other hard-luck types for whom life is a daily act of survival. He received his greatest showcases from director Lina Wertmuller, who cast him in nearly all of his films, most notably "Seven Beauties" (1973), which earned him an Oscar nomination as a concentration camp inmate who debases himself to stay alive. Unlike many of his contemporaries from Europe, Giannini was remarkably active in the 1990s and early 2000s, where his mastery of English and a variety of accents gained him entry into the American market. There, he lent solid support to a number of high-profile pictures, including "A Walk in the Clouds" (1995), "Hannibal" (2001), "Casino Royale" (2006) and its sequel, "Quantum of Solace" (2008). Giannini's enormously empathetic presence and vast body of well-regarded work made him one of the most respected international performers of the latter half of the 20th century and beyond.