Volonte, Gian Maria

▪ 1995

      Italian actor (b. April 9, 1933, Milan, Italy—d. Dec. 6, 1994, Florina, Greece), epitomized, with his chiseled features, hooded eyes, and scowling demeanour, the classic tough guy in such films as Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (1964; under the stage name John Wells), Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1970), and Lucky Luciano (1973). Noted for his charisma and intensity, Volonté was called the Italian Laurence Olivier, although admittedly more for his bearing than for his dramatic skills. He was most popular as a heavy, but it was his role as a diligent journalist in the 1983 Swiss film Death of Mario Ricci that earned him his highest artistic honour—the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Other more sympathetic roles included Volonté's portrayal of antifascist Italian writer Carlo Levi in Christ Stopped at Eboli (1979), a good-hearted physician investigating a mysterious murder in Chronicle of a Death Foretold (1987), and an upstanding Sicilian judge in Open Doors (1990). Volonté's outspoken defense of militant leftist politics prompted him to refuse a lucrative Hollywood offer, declaring that his conscience would not allow him to accept such a large sum for work as an actor. Volonté began acting at the age of 17 with traveling theatre groups, and during the 1950s he appeared on television in adaptations of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, and Vittorio Alfieri's Saul. The actor was little known outside Europe. Volonté was on film location when he died in his hotel room after suffering a heart attack.

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