Actors and actresses of the 60s, 70s and 80s

A moment in history where the best in all areas was concentrated. The 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s were traversed by the most beautiful women and the most handsome men. By the most charming actors and actresses. In the top movies, in the best clothes, with the coolest music. In the most beautiful cars. In the craziest parties. From the 1990s onwards, it’s getting off the merry-go-round at everything, except in technological innovation, the insouciance lost forever. Who lived those years, like a protagonist and not, has seen the beauty of life, its very essence. Other people can’t understand. Some things you can’t tell.

Alain Delon

Seeing him with Brigitte Bardot in old age is endearing. The hottest couple ever. Charm, beauty, personality even now. They have stopped time. Alain Delon, the highest peak of nature in men. Gorgeous women, four children, romantic cars. A few like him reached a record high and got to the way out with such deep melancholy. Such intense life, generous, very hard, can become a burden in memory. He, like Bardot, takes refuge in animals, his beloved dogs, that he buries like people.

Alain Fabien Maurice Marcel Delon, was born in Sceaux, Seine (now Hauts-de-Seine), Île-de-France, a suburb of Paris. Son of Fabien Delon (1904-1977), director of a little cinema of quarter, “Le Règina”, and Edìth Arnold (1911-1995), a young pharmacy salesgirl, he’s considered to be one of the greatest French actors of all time along with Jean Gabin, or Jean-Paul Belmondo, his eternal media “rival” in France of the ‘60s. His parents divorced when he was four.

Born 8 November, 1935, he became one of Europe's most prominent screen sex symbols in the 1960s and 1970s. Irresistible charm, damned beauty based on oxymorons, Delon has one of the most symbolic faces of French cinema. His angelic features, combined with icy stare and rough and resolute manners, have allowed him to specialize in classical bad-ass roles hard boiled-style, seductive and with tragically sealed fate, antihero within the gangland or the police.

Dark, mysterious, lonely men, who very often would get revealed even autobiographical of their player. Absolute beauty, athletic body, the magnetism of gaze between innocence and cruelty, have intrigued women and filmmakers, but have also been his curse.

After being loved by the most beautiful women of his time, he was alone after his last companion, the Dutch model Rosalie van Breemen, left him. For years in France he has no rivals, except Jean-Paul Belmondo, a competition accentuated by the media, but always nuanced by both parties.

Delon starred in specialty, adventure and crime movies, from “Mélodie en sous-sol”, to “Borsalino”, from “Le Félins” to “Le Samourai” (1967), all magnificent box office, but he more often than not allowed himself inroads into auteur films, “La prima notte di quiete” by Valerio Zurlini, “Mr. Klein” by Joseh Losey, “Nouvelle vague” by Jean-Luc Godard. He achieved critical acclaim for roles in films such as “Rocco and his brothers” in 1960, “Plein soleil” in 1960, “L'eclisse” in 1962, “The leopard” in 1963, “The yellow Rolls-Royce” in 1965, and “Lost command” in 1966.

A career of 95 movies which, in the late ‘70s, with the arrival of hunky and handsome American celebrities, begins to overblown and ends in 2008 with the movie “Astérix aux Jeux Olympiques”. Delon worked with many well known directors, including Luchino Visconti, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean-Pierre Melville, Michelangelo Antonioni and Louis Malle.

He acquired Swiss citizenship on 23 September 1999 and resides in Chêne-Bougeries in the canton of Geneva. In 2015 he wished to express his support for Marine Le Pen’s “Front National”, a French right-wing party.

"Romy Schneider was the first, true, great love of my life.” Alain Delon

Delon? “Nothing is colder than a love that has passed away.” Romy Schneider

“I started doing this work thanks to some women. The ones that are making me make cinema. It was women who wanted me, made me, gave me everything, women who fell in love with me. They have had six or seven years minimum on me. And then, in the eyes of these women, I wanted to see that I was the most handsome, the greatest, the strongest, that’s why I have become an actor”, “acteur”, he clarifies, “and not comedien. My career has nothing to do with the profession of 'comedien', that’s a vocation. You want to become it the same way that you want to become a taxi driver or a baker. You attend some courses, go to school, then conservatoires. It’s the essential difference between Belmondo and Delon. I’m an acteur, Jean-Paul is a comedien. A comedien recites, spends years to learn, while the actor lives. I have always lived my roles. I have never recited. The actor is an accident. I’m an accident. My life is an accident. My career is an accident.” Alain Delon

“I knew everything and received everything. But real happiness, is giving.” Alain Delon

“You believe in God, then you don't believe anymore and when you have a big problem, you pray anyway.” Alain Delon

"Getting old sucks. There's nothing you can do about it, age takes its toll. You don't recognize your face, you lose your sight. You stand up and, damn it, your ankle hurts. That's why I asked my son Anthony to organize my euthanasia for when I will be ready. I've also already made a will, so that my inheritance doesn't become a source of dispute among my descendants. After a certain age, you have the right to leave peacefully, without going through hospitals, injections and so on. Life no longer gives me much. I have known everything, I have seen everything. But, above all, I hate this era, I reject it. There are beings that I hate. Everything is false, everything is distorted, there is no respect, nothing more words of honor. Only the money counts. I know I will leave this world with no regrets...". Alain Delon

An ultra-rare Ferrari 250 GT SWB California Spyder from 1961, one of only a few dozen ever made, hammered for a record-breaking $18.5 million at an auction in Paris on February 9, 2015. In addition to scarcity of the model, what makes the car remarkable is its unusual provenance. Having once belonged to Alain Delon, it is part of a trove of 60 rare classic cars discovered on a farm in western France. The collection is believed to have been forgotten for half a century. Delon, who owned the car for two years, was photographed in it with Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine. According to ArtDaily, Alain has criticized the auction house for using his name to push up the price of the car, stating: “Everything that has been indicated, mentioned, written about the sale of this car has been done without my consent.”

Brigitte Bardot

Still good-looking and very glamorous. Time didn’t touch her. The more she’s hiding the more she’s wanted. Because there never was a woman like her.

Brigitte Anne Marie Bardot, over 80 years and never a minute without getting people to talk about her. That blond “I don’t know what” made of checkered vichy textiles, “ballerine” (dancers’ shoes), “alla marinara” shirts (sailor suit) and a lot of very sexy not caring attitude. Better known as the sex symbol of 1950s and 1960s, she was widely referred to by her initials, B.B ("Bri-Bri" when she was a child).

She is the woman who has sealed the change of an era: that of individual freedoms, of permissiveness which has followed the period of war crisis. Despite the polemics, her fiery nature, the envy of the other women who are calling her a wedding crasher, Brigitte Bardot is the symbol of change of the woman in society.

Born 28 September 1934, she is an actress, singer, dancer, and fashion model. She was an aspiring ballerina in her early life and started her acting career in 1952. She achieved international recognition in 1957 for her role in the controversial “And God created woman”.

Bardot caught the attention of French intellectuals. She was the subject of Simone de Beauvoir's 1959 essay, The Lolita syndrome, which described Brigitte as a "locomotive of women's history" and built upon existentialist themes to declare her the first and most liberated woman of post-war France.

She later starred in Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film “Le mépris”. For her role in Louis Malle's 1965 film “Viva Maria!” Bardot was nominated for a BAFTA award for best foreign actress. From 1969 to 1978, she was the official face of Marianne (who had previously been anonymous) to represent the liberty of France.

Although in a period of major boost of European cinema, her rise was quite impressive: she’s one of the few European actresses who captured attention of United States media. She and Marilyn Monroe become icons of female sexuality in the ‘50s and the ‘60s. She had launched the bikini and the bare breast, million women were imitating her honeycomb hairstyle, were wearing checkered dresses and skinny jeans like hers, Andy Warhol and the world’s greatest photographers had portrayed her, there was dancing the samba dedicated to her everywhere. But she wanted to die and no accident she continuously said she wanted to leave cinema.

It’s Brigitte Bardot, now just BB, provocative symbol of rebelliousness, girl of sin. Her low 50s films were mostly not very intellectual romantic stories, some of them historical, in which Bardot often played the part of an innocent heroine or a siren of love. It was sunny, there was the Mediterranean, her naked… It was the ‘50s. Between 1952 and 1972/73, B.B. had acted in 47 films, performed in several musicals, recorded more than 60 songs, and has had 4 husbands and a son.

She has got “sfilata” and rebel bangs and feathered hair. The first one was perfectly matching with Lolita look of Cote d’Azur. The second with May 68 turtlenecks. She was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1985 but refused to accept it.

After retiring she became an animal rights activist. During the 2000s, she generated controversy by criticizing immigration and Islam in France and has been fined five times for inciting racial hatred. Brigitte, godlike creature, symbol of free woman, sexual revolution icon, reluctantly fragile and tormented legend. Now ferociously hostile to any approach, she gives herself with difficulty, she answers in short, with the same insolence which has seduced the world. Today she looks like a wounded animal: “I could get out of my confinement just for them, my beloved animals.”

Bardot was born a brunette in Paris, the daughter of Louis Bardot (1896–1975) and Anne-Marie "Toty" Bardot (née Mucel; 1912–1978). Louis had an engineering degree and worked with his father, Charles Bardot, in the family business. Brigitte grew up in an upper middle-class Roman Catholic observant home. In 1947, she was accepted to the Conservatoire de Paris. For three years she attended ballet classes. The other ballerinas nicknamed her "Bichette" ("little doe").

Aged 15, she appeared on an 8 March 1950 cover of Elle and was noticed by a young film director, Roger Vadim, while babysitting. Her relationship with Vadim influenced her further life and career. For the 1956 Italian movie “Mio figlio Nerone” she was asked by the director to appear as a blonde. Rather than wear a wig to hide her naturally brunette hair she decided to dye her hair. She was so pleased with the results that she decided to retain the hair colour.

Finally there was “And God created woman” (1956), Vadim's debut as director, with Brigitte starring opposite Jean-Louis Trintignant and Curt Jurgens. The film, about an immoral teenager in a respectable small-town setting, was a huge success, not just in France but also around the world - it was among the ten most popular films in Britain in 1957. It turned Bardot into an international star. In 1958 the moniker "sex kitten" was invented for her.
She appeared in four movies that made her a star. First up was a musical, “Naughty girl” in 1956, where Bardot played a troublesome school girl. Directed by Michel Boisrond, it was co-written by Roger Vadim and was a big hit, the 12th most popular film of the year in France. It was followed by a comedy, “Plucking the Daisy” in 1956, written by Vadim with the director Marc Allegret, and another success at France. So too was the comedy “The bride is much too beautiful” in 1956 with Louis Jourdan.

During her early career, professional photographer Sam Lévin's photos contributed to the image of Bardot's sensuality. One showed her from behind, dressed in a white corset. British photographer Cornel Lucas made images of her in the 1950s and 1960s that have become representative of her public persona. Bardot followed “And God created woman” with “La Parisienne” in 1957, a comedy co-starring Charles Boyer for director Boisrond. She was reunited with Vadim in another melodrama “The night heaven fell” in 1958 and played a criminal who seduced Jean Gabin in “In case of adversity” in 1958. The latter was the 13th most seen movie of the year in France.

“The female” in 1959 for director Julien Duvivier was popular, but “Babette goes to war” in 1959, a comedy set in World War Two, was a huge hit, the fourth biggest movie of the year in France. Also widely seen was “Come dance with me” in 1959 from Boisrond. Her next film was the courtroom drama “The truth” in 1960, from Henri-Georges Clouzot. It was a highly publicised production, which resulted in Bardot having an affair and attempting suicide. The film was her biggest ever commercial success in France, the third biggest hit of the year, and was nominated for a Best Foreign Film Oscar.

Her career had traversed epochs where it was possible to say, "in the 60s and early 70s, there was no better known – or more scandalous – movie star on earth. Not since the death of Valentino had a star aroused such insane devotion in their fans." In 1973, BB announced she was retiring from acting as "a way to get out elegantly."

She participated in several musical shows and recorded many popular songs in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly in collaboration with Serge Gainsbourg, Bob Zagury and Sacha Distel, including "Harley Davidson", "Je me donne a qui me plaît", "Bubble gum", "Contact", "Je reviendrai toujours vers toi", "L'appareil a sous", "La Madrague", "On déménage", "Sidonie", "Tu veux, ou tu veux pas?", "Le soleil de ma vie" (the cover of Stevie Wonder's "You are the sunshine of my life") and the notorious "Je t'aime... moi non-plus".

In May 1958 Bardot had bought the house “La Madrague” in Saint-Tropez.

On 21 December 1952, aged 18, she married Roger Vadim. They divorced in 1957, after less than five years of marriage; they had no children together, but remained in touch, and even collaborated on later projects. The stated reason for the divorce was Bardot's affairs with two other men.

While married to Vadim, Bardot had an affair with Jean-Louis Trintignant, who was her co-star in “And God created woman”. Trintignant at the time was married to actress Stéphane Audran. The two lived together for about two years, spanning the period before and after Bardot's divorce from Vadim, but they never married. Their relationship was complicated by Trintignant's frequent absence due to military service and Bardot's affair with musician Gilbert Bécaud.

In early 1958, her divorce from Vadim was followed in quick order by her break-up with Trintignant, and a reported nervous breakdown in Italy, according to newspaper reports. A suicide attempt with sleeping pills two days earlier was also noted, but was denied by her public relations manager. She recovered within weeks and began an affair with actor Jacques Charrier. She became pregnant well before they were married on 18 June 1959.

Bardot's only child, her son Nicolas-Jacques Charrier, was born on 11 January 1960. After she and Charrier divorced in 1962, Nicolas was raised in the Charrier family and had little contact with his biological mother until his adulthood.

Bardot's third marriage was to German millionaire Gunter Sachs, and lasted from 14 July 1966 to 1 October 1969. In 1968, she began dating Patrick Gilles, who went on to co-star with her in “The bear and the doll” in 1970; but she ended their relationship in spring 1971.

Over the next few years, she dated in succession bartender/ski instructor Christian Kalt, club owner Luigi Rizzi, musician (later producer) Bob Zagury, singer Serge Gainsbourg, writer John Gilmore, actor Warren Beatty, and Laurent Vergez, her co-star in “Don Juan”, or “If Don Juan were a woman”.

The longest of these relationships was with sculptor Miroslav Brozek; she lived with him from 1975 to December 1979 and posed for some of his sculptures. After breaking up with Brozek, she was in a long-term relationship with French TV producer Allain Bougrain-duBourg.

Bardot's fourth and current husband is Bernard d'Ormale, a former adviser of Jean-Marie Le Pen; they were married on 16 August 1992.

In 1974 Brigitte appeared in a nude photo shoot in Playboy magazine, which celebrated her 40th birthday. On 28 September 1983, her 49th birthday, Bardot took an overdose of sleeping pills or tranquilizers with red wine. She had to be rushed to hospital, where her life was saved after a stomach pump was used to evacuate the pills from her body. Bardot is also a breast cancer survivor.

In a section in the book entitled, "Open letter to my lost France", Bardot writes that "my country, France, my homeland, my land is again invaded by an overpopulation of foreigners, especially Muslims." For this comment, a French court fined her 30,000 francs in June 2000. She had been fined in 1997 for the original publication of this open letter in “Le Figaro” and again in 1998 for making similar remarks.

In her 2003 book, “Un cri dans le silence” (A scream in the silence), she warned of an "Islamicization of France", and said of Muslim immigration: “over the last twenty years, we have given in to a subterranean, dangerous, and uncontrolled infiltration, which not only resists adjusting to our laws and customs but which will, as the years pass, attempt to impose its own.“ In her book she wrote about issues such as racial mixing, immigration, the role of women in politics, and Islam. The book also contained a section attacking what she called the mixing of genes and praised previous generations who, she said, had given their lives to push out invaders.

On 10 June 2004, Bardot was convicted for a fourth time by a French court for inciting racial hatred and fined €5,000. She also said, in reference to Muslims, that she was "fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its habits." The trial concluded on 3 June 2008, with a conviction and fine of €15,000, the largest of her fines to date.

In fashion, the Bardot neckline (a wide-open neck that exposes both shoulders) is named after her. She popularized this style which is especially used for knitted sweaters or jumpers although it is also used for other tops and dresses. Bardot popularized the bikini in her early films. She also brought into fashion the “choucroute” ("Sauerkraut") hairstyle (a sort of beehive hair style) and gingham clothes.

She was the subject of an Andy Warhol painting and has been also credited with popularizing the city of St. Tropez. She was idolized by the young John Lennon and Paul McCartney. According to the liner notes of his first (self-titled) album, musician Bob Dylan dedicated the first song he ever wrote to BB. He also mentioned her by name in "I shall be free", which appeared on his second album, “The Freewheelin”.

“Brigitte always gave the impression of sexual freedom - she is a completely open and free person, without any aggression.” Roger Vadim

“I leave before being left. I decide...”

“It is better to be unfaithful, than faithful without wanting to be.”

“It's the decomposition that gets me. You spend your whole life looking after your body. And then you rot away.”

“I am greatly misunderstood by politically correct idiots.”

“I don’t think when I make love.”

“Women get more unhappy the more they try to liberate themselves.”

“I’m typically French.”

“Politics disgusts me.”

“I wasn't scandalous - I didn't want to be.”

“When I love, I do it without counting. I give myself entirely. And each time, it is the grand love of my life.”

“The world today doesn't please me.”

“Death was like love, a romantic escape.”

“Nobody has any security in loving me.”

“If only every man who sees my films did not get the impression he can make love to me, I would be a lot happier.”

“I can't do the same thing every night, the same gestures... it's like putting on dirty panties every day.”

“Men are beasts and even beasts don't behave as they do.”

“I had the idea to walk around wearing ballet slippers, but without tips, and this suggested Repetto “invent” “ballerine”. I wanted a very short upper and an extremely flexible sole because, unlike today’s fashion in which military boots expose figure to ridicule, the more the shoes are flexible and light the more the woman is valorised.” Brigitte Bardot

“Cinema and men betrayed me. My house and my animals never will.”

“B.B. is dead now. She was just an image. I’m someone else now.”

“Getting old? The only advantage is that you don’t die young.”

“In life you must not needing anyone.”

Talking about Saint Tropez: “when I first came it was still a small fishing port, nice and quiet. I bought la Madrague in the ‘60s and my parents are buried in the town cemetery. I’m tied to Saint-Tropez, where there was a real “douceur de vivre”. But I live far away from the crowd. I avoid to go there because it’s so changed that I don’t love it anymore.”

“Alain Delon and me belong to a luminous generation, in which cinema made people dream. We remained pioneers, role models, despite our fragilities and our mistakes. It’s formidable, but also very sad for the present.”

The Ferrari 365 BB was named after Brigitte Bardot. To reveal the news was the engineer who created the wonderful car, Leonardo Fioravanti, maker of the most beautiful Ferrari from 1964 to 1987. The Ferrari 365 BB, coupe two-seater and mid-rear-engine, was presented at the Turin Motor Show in 1971 and was produced from 1973 to 1984 in three versions. It was in those years the most popular Ferrari and only now we know that double B (short for Berlinetta Boxer) also referred to the initials of Bardot.

Engineer Fioravanti recalls: “when we were working on the prototype… we had literally fallen in love with that Ferrari, the first mid-engine one in the history of Prancing Horse. We thought it was beautiful… Internally, among us, we have nicknamed her Brigitte Bardot, BB...; continuing with developmental work had become natural to call that car BB in all Ferrari departments involved in the development… so that after so many hours of work Brigitte Bardot, BB, remained.” The allusion to Brigitte Bardot kept on being within the creators of the model, given that at the Turin Motor Show in 1971 was presented the 365 GT/4 BB, where “BB” was officially an acronym for “Berlinetta Boxer”, a good solution to hide a love affair of us who had given birth to a car of great emotional engagement.”

Sotheby’s offered an historic Riva for auction, a 1959 Acquarama Super Florida owned by Brigitte Bardot and Roger Vadim. Brigitte and her Riva were an iconic pairing off St Tropez and in the 1960s. The Florida design was introduced in 1952 following the shapes of the coolest boats in the United States, and over 1.100 examples were produced, including the longer 20ft Super models. Bardot’s Riva was bought new by Vadim from Monaco Boat Service in 1959. Roger gave her the boat, which she kept at her St Tropez villa La Madrague and used regularly in the 1960s. Fully lovingly restored, the boat was estimated to reach between €80.000 and €120.000. Aquarama is a speedboat which marked an era, that was loved by the brightest stars of the time, from Sophia Loren to Brigitte Bardot, from Liz Taylor to Sean Connery.

Bud Spencer and Terence Hill

“Non una carriola qualunque… deve essere rossa con cappottina gialla!” Altrimenti... eh altrimenti? Beh, altrimenti... altrimenti ci arrabbiamo!” (“Not just any wheelbarrow… it has to be red with a yellow top! Otherwise… eh otherwise? Beh, otherwise… otherwise we’ll get mad!”) The soundtrack of our youth with their hilarious deeds and the extremely desired Dune Buggy, the sweetest car in the world, which gets a smile at all ages. But if it’s driven by them it becomes special.

Although more than 25 years have passed since the last film which saw them players together (Troublemakers, released in 1994), Bud Spencer and Terence Hill are even now one of the most beloved couples of Italian cinema. Protagonists of unmissable movies like “Watch out, we're mad!” (Altrimenti ci arrabbiamo), “I'm for the hippopotamus,” “They call me Trinity”, they never tire you out and never bore you.

Nice and funny stories, great fight scenes, good humour, awesome music. Their kind of acrobatic fights and polite and never vulgar humour have amused quite a bit of generations and will continue to do so in the future, as their films are very enjoyable even after a long time. A narrative universe that ranges from outlaws in the Wild West of “They call me Trinity” to policemen on the motorcycle in sunny Miami of the 1980s of “Miami supercops”, to unlikely priests in Central America in the late 1800s of “Two missionaries”, the whole thing always marked by irresistible over-the-top characters, abuse to redeem and a lot of slaps to give the bad boy on duty.

A large part of success of these movies also comes from sound support that, through the contribution of successful producers and composers, including Guido and Maurizio De Angelis (often known as the Oliver Onions), has unforgettably characterised the saga of the formidable Italian duo having American names.

“With Bud there was joy and I already know that, when next we meet, the first words he will tell me will be: ‘we never fought!'” Terence Hill

Bud Spencer

He took part in 128 films, 10 times Italian champion swimmer, a world record, a silver medal in European championships, 2 Olympic games made, he played on Italian water polo national team, 10 matches won by knockout as an amateur boxeur, 2000 hours of jet flight and 500 of helicopter, he was also race car driver for Alfa Romeo.

Strong fist, big heart, a bit of a joker, a hero of our childhood. His speech, his gruff manners, his sound and irresistible fights, an Italian but not excessive comedy, his sympathy will continue to drive us. Known around the world but mostly in Germany, where he has been a legend for a whole generation: in German there is a verb dedicated to him: "sich budspenceren" (to beat like Bud Spencer).

Along with Terence Hill he has written different and important moments of some of the happiest seasons of Italian production: from the unforgettable series of 'spaghetti western', to comic adventure, from quality cinema as a successful player for Ermanno Olmi, to international productions of entertainment.

Carlo Pedersoli (Naples 31 October 1929 – Rome 27 June 2016), known professionally as Bud Spencer, is known for action-comedy roles with his long-time film partner Terence Hill. The duo "garnered world acclaim and attracted millions to theater seats". Spencer and Hill appeared in, produced and directed over 20 films together.

In 1967 film director Giuseppe Colizzi offered him a role in “God forgives... I don't!”. On the set Pedersoli met Mario Girotti (Terence Hill). Although Spencer had met Girotti before on the set of Hannibal in 1959, this was the moment they went on to become a film duo. The film director asked the two actors to change their names, deeming them to be too Italian-sounding for a Western movie: Pedersoli chose Bud Spencer, with Bud inspired by Budweiser beer and Spencer by the actor Spencer Tracy.

While Hill's characters were agile and youthful, Spencer always played the "phlegmatic, grumpy strong-arm man with a blessed, naive child's laughter and a golden heart". Hill and Spencer worked together on many films, including (named using their most common U.S. titles) “God forgives... I don't!” (1967), “Ace high” (1968), “Boot hill” (1969), “They call me Trinity” (1970), “Trinity is still my name” (1971), “All the way, boys” (1972), “Watch out, we're mad” (1974), “Two missionaries” (1974), “Crime busters” (1977), “Odds and evens” (1978), “I'm for the hippopotamus” (1979), “Who finds a friend finds a treasure” (1981), “Go for it!” (1983), “Double trouble” (1984), “Miami supercops” (1985) and “Troublemakers” (1994). Films with Spencer alone include “The five man army” (1969), “Even angels eat beans” (1969), “The fifth day of peace” (1969), “It can be done amigo” (1972), “Flatfoot” (1973), “They call him Bulldozer” (1978), “The sheriff and the satellite kid” (1979), “Everything happens to me” (1980), “Banana Joe” (1982), “Bomber” (1982) and “Superfantagenio” (1986).

“When the Lord will take me, I want to go see what happens. Because if nothing happens, I’m going to be pissed. You got me up every morning for 87 years with no place to go in the end? Faced with so many massive things we don’t undestand, I can trust only him. And hope that when he’ll call me, everything will be clear to me. Because today, take my advice, you can’t understand anything anymore.”

An even excessive curiosity for the man who had always professed, and bragging about it, the “futteténn” (screw it) as a philosophy to live by. Maybe because of those Neapolitan roots from which he had never been disconnected, his mother Rosa and his father Alessandro, Santa Lucia rione (district). “What I remember about Naples? Bombs. You know, there was a bit of war… I was pretty grown up and I remember it well.”

From Naples to Rome, where his father was forced to move for work purposes in the early ‘40s and where Carlo belongs to a swimming club. Then the whole Pedersoli family moves to South America, Brazil and Argentina, until the late 1940s. Returned to Italy Carlo enters “Società Sportiva Lazio Nuoto”, succeeds in freestyle, wins championships, enters the history in 1950 as the first Italian to break the barrier of a minute, to be precise 59”5. He belongs on the National Team, participates in European Championships in Vienna, wins two medals in the 1951 Mediterranean Games in Egypt.

From swimming to cinema. The invention of the “comic western” works, people like the two because they are a sort of a cartoon. Because no one ever gets hurt, no one dies, all those who fall get back up. “In my life I made all trades”, Carlo said, “but really all of them. Only two things I couldn’t do: the ballet dancer and the jockey.” Proudly right-wing in politics. But, despite a variety of experiences, the most important achievements, according to Pedersoli, always remained the sporting ones. “Because success, in everything else, is bestowed by the public. Instead, when you win in sport, that’s all you, and no one is taking it from you.”

His son Giuseppe recalls, “he always said not to be an actor, after many years I’ve understood the meaning of that sentence: on set he didn’t play any character, he was exactly as he was in life. He didn’t want to be an actor, then there’s been a great alchemy with Terence Hill and like magic it all suddenly began.”

“I remember when Terence came to our house for my grandfather’s 80th birthday party to eat “spaghetti alla Maria” (spaghetti Maria), that was their favorite food, they were so close”, the nephew Alessandro added.

Giuseppe Pedersoli: "dad flew away peacefully at quarter past six. He didn’t suffer, he had all of us next to him and his last word was thank you.”

Bud Spencer with his wife Maria Amato.

"He wasn't the husband who took you to dinner and gave you roses; for example, our honeymoon lasted only three days. I didn't have rival women but rival engines, he went crazy for engines. He also loved going to the construction site, the smell of the workshops seemed like nectar to him. Carlo was a good person, he enjoyed his life abundantly. He was lucky and knew how to run his adventure honestly. This mythologizing that exists now that they make him almost a saint would have made him laugh. Already in Germany and Hungary he was an idol. In Italy instead we struggle to recognize success. But if he saw what people do now... I remain amazed. I have letters that make me cry because of how beautiful they are. It's the fans who tell him: ‘you gave us serenity. The joy of seeing together with our children those films that we saw with our fathers’." Maria Amato

Terence Hill

Terence Hill (born Mario Girotti; 29 March 1939) is an actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. He started his career as a child actor and went on to multiple starring roles in action and comedy films, many with longtime film partner and friend Bud Spencer.

During the height of his popularity Girotti was among Italy's highest-paid actors. His most widely seen films include comic and standard "Italian style Westerns" (colloquially, "spaghetti westerns"), some based on popular novels by German author Karl May about the American West. Of these, the most famous are “They call him Trinity” in 1970 and “My name is Nobody in 1973, co-starring Henry Fonda.

His film “Django, prepare a coffin”, shot in 1968 by director Ferdinando Baldi, and co-starring Horst Frank and George Eastman, was featured at the 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007. Also in 1968, Hill changed his name from Mario Girotti to Terence Hill, a name made up by the film producers; he had to choose from a list of twenty names and picked the one with his mother's initials. In the following years, he starred in many action and Spaghetti Westerns, together with longtime colleague and friend Bud Spencer.

The pair made a large number of Italian Westerns and other films together, and were notable for their comedy films, successful not only in Italy, but also abroad. Many of these have alternate titles, depending upon the country and distributor. His name will remain inextricably linked to his most known character Trinità.

Hill was born on 29 March 1939 in Venice, Italy. His mother, Hildegard Girotti (née Thieme), was a German, from Dresden; his father, Girolamo Girotti, was Italian, and a chemist by occupation. During his childhood, Hill lived in the small town of Lommatzsch, Germany. He was there through the end of World War II (1943–1945) and survived the Dresden bombing. He was discovered by Italian filmmaker Dino Risi at a swimming meet at the age of 12, and became an actor, appearing in “Holiday with the gangster” in 1951. His early roles also included “The abandoned” in 1955.

Hill is married to Lori Hill née Zwicklbauer. He has two sons, Jess (born 1969) and Ross (1973-1990). Ross was killed in a car accident in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in the winter of 1990, while Terence was preparing to film “Lucky Luke” (1991).

“Not always who pours shit on you does it to hurt you; not always who pulls you out of shit does it to do you good.” Mario Girotti

“I live fine here, in the woods. I hate the worldliness, cinema parties.” Mario Girotti

About his always refusing commercial publicity Girotti says: “yes and I even renounce big fees, but I think it’s only fair. If I borrowed my brand to promote a product it would be like putting a split with my audience. My characters are integral and should remain so.”

Catherine Deneuve

Elegant and ethereal, today just like yesterday, Catherine Deneuve turned 70. A “trés charmante” Parisian woman. Role model, she still is a secure beauty.

She was born Catherine Fabienne Dorléac in Paris on 22 October 1943, the daughter of French stage actors Maurice Dorléac and Renée Simonot. There was a war, the Germans. Like in “The last metro”, the movie in which she and Gerard Depardieu continue to secretly love each other. She is an actress as well as an occasional singer, model and producer.

Deneuve was her mother's maiden name, which she chose for her stage name, in order to differentiate herself from her sisters. She gained recognition for her portrayal of icy, aloof and mysterious beauties for various directors, including Luis Buñuel, François Truffaut and Roman Polanski. In 1985, she succeeded Mireille Mathieu as the official face of Marianne, France's national symbol of liberty.

A 14-time César Award nominee, she won for her performances in Truffaut's “The last metro” in 1980, for which she also won the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress, and Régis Wargnier's “Indochine” in 1992.

Deneuve made her film debut in 1957 and first came to prominence in Jacques Demy's 1964 musical “The umbrellas of Cherbourg”, before going on to star for Polanski in “Repulsion” in 1965 and for Buñuel in “Belle de jour” in 1967 and “Tristana” in 1970.

“A woman has to be intelligent, have charm, a sense of humor, and be kind...” Catherine Deneuve

“At a certain age, you have to choose between your face and your ass.“ Catherine Deneuve

“You should put scent where you like to be kissed.” Catherine Deneuve

Don Johnson

“Miami Vice” is maybe the best tv show ever, the music, the clothes, the cars, the actors, Miami, the 80's! It's not such a far-fetched idea. 30 years went by since then. I wish I could go back in time!

There are those that say that the '80s only really became the '80s when the soundtrack of “In the air tonight” by Phil Collins began to accompany Crockett (Don Johnson) and his partner Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) on their night-time adventures on the streets of Miami.

Broadcast for the first time on the NBC network on the 16th of September 1984, the advent of “Miami Vice” changed television forever. Just one year later the two police officers were already on the cover of TIME, under the title “Cool cops, hot show”, sanctioning the series' success.

Fundamental ingredients of the show: the central role played by the theme music (played by highly successful musicians, from Phil Collins to Dire Straits, and broadcast in stereo for television for the first time), the almost exclusive use of pastel colours (no earth tones), a new way of dressing (Macy’s dedicated special corners in its stores to clothing inspired by the series) and above all the sex appeal of Don Johnson at the height of his fame. The series may have stopped at 111 episodes, running from that September in 1984 until 1989, but the legacy of “Miami Vice” is still strong even today.

Donald Wayne Johnson (born December 15, 1949) is an American actor, producer, director, singer, and songwriter. Best known for his starring role as Det. Sonny Crockett on the hugely successful TV series “Miami Vice” in 1984, he is one of the stars who really defined the 1980s.

As James "Sonny" Crockett he went toe-to-toe with drug dealers, pimps, prostitutes, assassins, illegal arms-dealers and crooked cops on a weekly basis. The show, which was executive-produced by four time Oscar-nominated director, producer and writer Michael Mann, paired Johnson with the equally cool Philip Michael Thomas as Det. Ricardo Tubbs and the calm and stoic presence of Edward James Olmos as Lt. Martin Castillo.

It revolutionized television with its modern fashion, pop music, unique style and use of real locations. Johnson typically wore $1000 Armani, Versace and Hugo Boss suits over pastel cotton T-shirts, drove a Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona (really a replica kit on a 1981 Corvette chassis), followed by a Ferrari Testarossa, wore expensive timepieces by Rolex and Ebel, and lived on a 40-foot (12 m) (later a 42-ft) Endeavour yacht named "St. Vitus' dance" with his pet alligator, Elvis. He also had full use of an offshore powerboat.

Still, "Miami Vice" had not only style but substance, and his portrayal of the Vietnam veteran turned vice detective turned Sonny Crockett into the world's favorite cop. The series was noted for its revolutionary use of music cinematography and imagery and its glitzy take on the police drama genre. For his work on "Miami Vice" Johnson won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a TV Series in 1986, and was nominated in the same category a year later. He also picked up an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 1985. Johnson was the American Power Boat Association's 1988 World Champion of the Offshore World Cup.

At the end of 2014 has drawn media attention the sale on the net of one of the two 1986 Ferrari Testarossa used in season three, four and five of the series “Miami Vice”. The car, offered for 1.750.000 US dollars, was supplied to Universal Studios as part of an agreement, after in the first two seasons the director Michael Mann had used a Chevrolet C3 dressing it up like a Ferrari Daytona. The car was originally black in color, but was painted in white to make it look more visible in the frequent night sequences of the series. The Testarossa was typically driven by Detective Sonny Crockett.

Jane Fonda

Jane Seymour Fonda is an actress, writer, political activist, former fashion model and fitness guru. She rose to prominence in 1960s with such films as “Period of adjustment” in 1962, “Sunday in New York” in 1963, “Cat Ballou” in 1965, “Barefoot in the park” in 1967 and “Barbarella” in 1968.

She was born in New York City on December 21, 1937. Her parents were Canadian-born socialite Frances Ford Brokaw (née Seymour; 1908–1950), and actor Henry Fonda (1905–1982). She has been married and divorced three times. She married her first husband, Barbarella director Roger Vadim, on August 14, 1965.

Jean Paul Belmondo

Stuntman, sportsman, charismatic, handsome, cool, man of the theatre, everything together. Jean Paul Belmondo, the French version of Steve McQueen.

On the occasion of 85 years of the actor, the magnificent scoundrel of French cinema, the documentary 'Le magnifique' on a Sky TV reviews life and career of Bébel: from the Academy to success with Godard, women and the eternal rivalry with Alain Delon. If it’s real, like it says in the documentary, that each of us carries around something of Jean-Paul Belmondo, thus, simply looking at the man before you even were dragged by the weirdness of the thug actor, eternally carefree, that something for someone are definitely his lips. Even cigarettes seem to suffer a magnetic appeal when in contact with the lips of Jean-Paul: they’re there, they dangle but don’t fall, without even breaking a sweat from the man to keep them.

Belmondo, man, actor and star, “breezy, virile, rascal but always smiling”. He was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Seine, now Hauts-de-Seine, west of Paris. Son of Paul Belmondo, a Pied-Noir sculptor who was born in Algeria of Italian descent, whose parents were of Sicilian and Piedmontese origin, and Sarah Rainaud-Richard, a painter. His is a respectable family, belonging to the intellectual bourgeoisie. He has always been playing the rebel, maverick and anarchic; however, both because now the character was this, and because there was a basis of truth, it was really hard for Bébel to respect the rules.

From here his aversion to school, a totally sui generis career at the Academy (where he finds a way to be admitted despite the entrance exam failed): with his group of friends and colleagues, which included Annie Girardot, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Jean Rochefort, it was a permanent confusion. For Jean-Paul was hard to hold back inappropriate words and gestures, like the umbrella one directed at his teachers on the day of the final pageant, the one that was supposed to open him the door of the Comédie-Française, in protest for having assigned him second place.

With the first movies, therefore, Belmondo sticked to him an American-bad-boy image, what had been James Dean in the United States, also due to roles, often similar, which he happened to play: the tough guy and the one who doesn’t give up. Jean-Paul earned the label of a bad guy especially for needing to avoid rules, which can be summarized as the advertising slogan for his Gauloises, "liberté toujours". That resulted on set in impatience with overly stringent inditations of directors and then it was inevitable that the arrival, in 1960, of Jean-Luc Godard and his experimental cinema, day by day made, would be for Belmondo almost salvation.

In the documentary 'Le magnifique' he remembers those moments onstage with Jean Seberg: “we had breakfast every morning together with Jean-Luc who was reading lines he wanted us to tell. It was very natural, even shooting scenes in bed wasn’t embarrassing, if we wanted to hug we could do this, if we wanted us to be under the sheets as well.” With Jean-Pierre Melville it will be some other kind of relationship, but that director was, the other way around compared to Godard, a visionary too and Bebel will end up owing him too: Melville gave him the first role that’s not him, the one of a priest.

Léon Morin, prêtre was a proof that, for those who didn’t understand yet, Jean-Paul is even more than easygoing and mindless or an action man. With Melville, Belmondo will make three films in total. During the last one, “L'Aîné des Ferchaux” in 1963, the two will furiously argue due to the attitude of the director, someone who considered “prisoners” his actors and had no problem to offend them on set. With Henri Verneuil commercial successes arrived, made of popular language really borrowed by boxing clubs or bistrot (Un singe en hive, Week-end à Zuydcoote). To him Jean-Paul owes the worldwide consecration.

He arrived in Italy, was welcomed like a star and acted with Gina Lollobrigida, Claudia Cardinale, Sophia Loren. These were also the years of American magazines covers: sex symbol and movie star the words with which he was called. Philippe de Broca’s “L’homme de Rio” was gasoline on the fire. Jean-Luc Godard hired him for “Pierrot le fou”.

The 1970s were then those of the reckoning in duel Jean-Paul Belmondo - Alain Delon, this last at the peak of his success too. To decide that France and cinema could have needed both of them, particularly because they were men and actors totally different, highly concentrated, dark and also distant Delon, extrovert and jovial Bébel, the two agreed to make a movie together. “Borsalino” was public success, but they managed to fight, and end up in court, on a point of order of names on movie posters. They will make it up, a result “important for the profession” the icy Delon will say.

‘70s and ‘80s crime dramas were the way of reminding that, even over the age of 50 (to tell the truth until he was 65) Belmondo didn’t accept stuntmen on the set, reserving for himself even the most phisically demanding and dangerous scenes, expecting the camera to do the opposite of what it usually does when stuntmen are present: to get close to confirm that the actor was always him.

Choosing to go back to the theater, Belmondo finded on stage those emotions “that cinema can’t give you”, then he thought of his mother sitting in the theater who has been waiting thirty years for that moment.

Jean Paul Belmondo, born 9 April 1933, is initially associated with the New Wave of the 1960s and one of the biggest French film stars of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. His best known credits include “Breathless” in 1960 and “That man from Rio” in 1964. As a boy he was more interested in sport than school, developing a particular interest in boxing and soccer.

Belmondo made his amateur boxing debut on 10 May 1949 in Paris when he knocked out Rene DesMarais in one round. Belmondo's boxing career was undefeated, but brief. He won three straight first round knockout victories from 1949 to 1950. "I stopped when the face I saw in the mirror began to change," he later said.

As part of his compulsory military service, he served in Algeria as a private for six months.

“Breathless” was a major success in France and overseas and launched Belmondo as an international name and the face of the New Wave - even though, as he said "I don't know what they mean" when people used that term. In the words of the New York Times it led to his having "more acting assignments than he can handle". He followed it with “Trapped by fear” in 1960, then the Italian film “Letters by a novice” in 1960. With Jeanne Moreau and Peter Brook he made “Seven days... seven nights” in 1961 which he later called "very boring".

He had his first notable on screen comedy role in the anthology movie “Love and the Frenchwoman” (1960). Then he made two Italian films: supporting Sophia Loren in “Two women” (1961), as a bespectacled country boy ("It may disappoint those who've got me typed," said Belmondo. "But so much the better."), then opposite Claudia Cardinale in “The lovemakers” (1961). “Two women” and “Breathless” were widely seen in the US and England. In 1961 the New York Times called him "the most impressive young French actor since the advent of the late Gérard Philipe." He was reunited with Godard for “A woman is a woman” (1961) and made another all-star anthology comedy, “Famous love affairs” (1961).

Later he acted in Jean-Pierre Melville's philosophical movie “Léon Morin, priest” (1961). He was a retired gangster in “A man named Rocca” (1962), then had a massive hit with the swashbuckler “Cartouche” (1962), directed by Philippe de Broca. Also popular was “A monkey in winter” (1962), a comedy where he and Jean Gabin played alcoholics.

He had a cameo in the Italian comedy “The shortest day” (1962). François Truffaut wanted Belmondo to play the lead in an adaptation of “Fahrenheit 451”. This did not happen (the film was made several years later with Oskar Werner); instead Belmondo made two with Jean-Pierre Melville: the film noir crime film “The fingerman” (Le doulos, 1963) and “Magnet of doom” (1963).

He co-starred with Gina Lollobrigida in “Mad sea” (1963) and appeared in another comedy anthology, “Sweet and sour” (1963). There was some controversy when he was arrested for insulting a policeman, when the policeman was charged with assaulting Belmondo.

On December 4, 1952, Belmondo married Élodie Constantin, with whom he had three children: Patricia (1953–1993), who was killed in a fire, Florence (born 1958) and Paul (born 1963). Belmondo and Constantin separated in 1965. She filed for divorce in September 1966, and it was finalized on January 5, 1968.

He had relationships with Ursula Andress from 1965 to 1972, Laura Antonelli from 1972 to 1980, Carlos Sotto Mayor from 1980 to 1987, and Barbara Gandolfi from 2008 to 2012. In 1989, Belmondo was in his mid-50s when he met 24-year-old dancer Natty Tardivel. The couple lived together for over a decade before marrying in 2002.

On 13 August 2003, Tardivel gave birth to then 70-year-old Belmondo's fourth child, Stella Eva Angelina. Belmondo and Tardivel divorced in 2008.

His son Paul says: “my father has had a reckless life, at the movies, always in the place of manly naughty boy, easy-fisted and slapped, even with women, but in life he was an absolute peach, a tender father, always ready to joke. In the 60 films, he shot in his career, he got up to all sorts. He jumped on running trains, he jumped in the sea from bridges tens of meters high, sometimes he came home with the cast. He was like that, a sportsman, who had boxed and had given up a promising career as footballers to make movies,” Paul recalls, adding: “but the best scene he always played when we visited my grandmother: he suspended himself on the handrail of the stairwell, on the fifth floor, shaking his legs in the void, like he did in movies, terrorizing her and cracking us up. Since I was a boy, summers in the French Riviera are the best memories we have, even though we have never drifted apart.”

“I would say I've done everything I wanted to.” Jean-Paul Belmondo

“The actors I admired were Bogart, Cagney, Cooper, Tracy. Great personalities. Real stars.” Jean-Paul Belmondo

«Une femme met plus de temps qu’un homme pour s’habiller parce qu’elle doit ralentir dans les courbes.» Jean-Paul Belmondo

“Charm is the ability to make others forget that you look as you do.” Jean Paul Belmondo

“Being afraid is the worst sin there is.” Jean Paul Belmondo

Belmondo purchased new in France a Ferrari F355 GTS model, renowned as one of the greatest V8 engine berlinetta cars ever built. With a manual gearbox the car is beautifully dressed in red and complemented with black leather interior and red carpets. To date, the car has a bit more than 85.000 km on the clock and is in excellent condition overall.

Marisa Mell

Marisa Mell, beautiful and unlucky. Deep, sultry voice, large, expressive green eyes, cleft chin, square jaw, curled upper lip and high cheekbones. Famous for playing seductive characters, she was good friends with Brigitte Bardot in the 1970s.

She died in Vienna at the Wilhelminer hospital, where she was a patient for several weeks. She was 53 and had long been sick of throat cancer.

She was born in Graz. Moved to Vienna she graduated from Max Reinhardt Art Academy and after having began in the theatre she had a leading role in a German movie right away. Long raven black hair, green eyes, in Rome of the 1960s she had no difficulty in finding room in the acting profession and in mundane milieu. In 1964 Mario Monicelli called her in Italy for “Casanova 70” and she settled there, making friends with Helmut Berger.

Marisa Mell has played in more than 60 movies. A career marked with many gender films, ranging from thriller to comedy, till the erotic, that was the Hail Mary of the actress, involved in drug things and drove to despair by the lack of money. Erotic movies which abounded at the end of her career, when extraordinary beauty of her face had given way to more pronounced contours, marked by irregular life and personal vicissitudes. Just by looking at titles of her last movies: from “Perversion” to “The obscene desire”, from “The female doctor prefers sailors” to “Taxi-love lady service”. In the middle a life filled with doubtful episodes, gambled in the wake of excess.

The most fulfilling and artistically relevant years are surely those ranging from 1967 to 1977, marked by participations in beautifully made movies. The first of these is definitely Mario Bava Diabolik, made in 1968 next to Law, in which she is the gorgeous companion of the criminal created by the Giussani sisters. She’s a credible Eva Kant; beautiful and haughty, with her body slightly hidden to get away from the hard mesh of censure. A role that allows her a sensational personal assertion; the movie quicky becomes a cult, and immediately gets her other contracts.

Then the decline and Marisa Mell will appear, after the second half of the 70s, in magazines like Playboy, in nudes artistic at least, and then move on to real hard-core shots, in which she just appears in non-active roles, like in those offered by the monthly magazine “Le Ore”.

About the “Roman Dolce Vita”, of which she was among key players back when was in vogue the 'Number one', attended by her fiance Pierluigi Torri, Mell wrote an autobiographical book.

Marisa Mell (born Marlies Theres Moitzi; 24 February 1939 – 16 May 1992) became a cult figure of 1960s Italian B-movies. In 1963, she was involved in a serious automobile accident in France. For six hours, she lay unconscious, unaware that she nearly lost her right eye. The disfigurement extended to her lip as well. She spent the next two years undergoing plastic surgery, and no damage remained in her face, except for a distinctive curl of her upper lip.

She turned down a seven-year Hollywood contract, saying that while the payment would have been great, "the contract was a whole book. I think that even to go to the toilet I would have needed a permission."

In 1967, she performed the title role in the "utterly calamitous" musical “Mata Hari” alongside Pernell Roberts. After a preview performance in Washington, D.C. that became infamous for its numerous technical problems, producer David Merrick, decided to close the doomed production before it reached Broadway. In the late 1990s, the television show MST3K brought the actress to a new generation of B-movie viewers when the film was featured on the final episode of the series. The show spoofed another of her starring roles in the film “Secret agent Super Dragon”.

Lived in Graz (until 1957), Vienna (1957 to 1959 & 1989 to 1992), West Germany (1960 to 1963), Paris (1964 to 1965), and Rome (1965 to 1988). Between 1970 and 1977, she also had an apartment in Madrid because she worked there frequently. She had affairs or relationships with Warren Beatty, Alain Delon, Roman Polanski, Robert Evans, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Michel Piccoli, Stephen Boyd, Walter Giller, Helmut Berger, Julián Mateos, John Phillip Law, Espartaco Santoni, Gianni Macchia, Don Jaime de Mora y Aragón, Giovanni Agnelli, Ivo Pitanguy, heir Alexander Onassis, the artist twins Witold and Tadeusz Katner, and pianist Maurizio Libardo. Her longest relationship was a turbulent on-off-affair with producer Pier Luigi Torri that lasted from 1965 to 1970.

[1986, on her looks] “I was never proud of my beauty, I was rather bothered by it. It was a tragedy. Every man wanted me, but no man wanted to keep me.”

“Movies are my life, and my life is a movie.”

“I have a higher goal than making one stupid picture after another.”

Roger Moore and Tony Curtis

Two lovely seducers. “The Persuaders”, twenty-four episodes (1971-1972) and two exceptional players, friends-rivals Brett Sinclair, an English aristocrat, and Daniel Wilde, an American millionaire business man, or Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.

Adventures around Europe, Rome, French Riviera, Paris, Stockholm and the English countryside, among fancy cars, pretty women, nightclubs and humor. They were very handsome and super chic.

A hundred thousand sterling was the budget for the production, extremely high at the time. And that theme song with one of the most famous musical tunes in the history of television, composed by John Barry. The series is a triumph in Italy, where it begins in 1973.

Roger Moore

Very attractive and high-class, not super macho but elegant charmer. And with an innate sense of humour. Literally adored by women, he was a highborn 007. He met as professional partners, among others, the splendid Swedish models Maud Adams (born Maud Solveig Christina Wikström; Luleå, February 12, 1945) and Britt Ekland.

“I was not very self-confident with [women]. I got lucky occasionally, but with a lack of confidence,” Moore said. Former Bond girls Britt Ekland, Barbara Bach and Maud Adams mourn their 007. “My Bond is gone, am filled with great sadness,” wrote Ekland, now 74. “Roger was the epitome of Bond, witty, sophisticated, elegant, funny.”

Moore died at age 89 after a battle with cancer.

Barbara Bach mourned the late star as well. “It was a pleasure working with Roger, he was a kind and good man. A true gentleman.” she said in a statement.

Maud Adams – who appeared in three of Moore’s Bond films, “Octopussy”, “The man with the golden gun” and (briefly) “A view to a kill” – told people in a statement, “sir Roger Moore was a beautiful human being inside and out and I will always remember him for his keen intellect, quick humor and deep caring for others. It’s been a life blessing to have worked with and been a friend of his. I will miss him deeply.”

Another one-time Bond girl, actress Jane Seymour, also shared her heartbreak online, writing of Moore, “he was so funny, kind and thoughtful to everyone around him and in that Roger taught me what a movie star really was and should be.”

Roger, who had three children – Deborah, Geoffrey and Christian, – died in Switzerland and was laid to rest in a private funeral in Monaco.

Sir Roger George Moore KBE (14 October 1927 – 23 May 2017) is best known for having played Ian Fleming's fictional British secret agent James Bond in seven feature films from 1973 to 1985. He took over the role of Bond from Sean Connery in 1972 and made his first appearance as 007 in “Live and let die” in 1973.

Moore's Bond was very different from the version created by Ian Fleming. Screenwriters such as George MacDonald Fraser provided scenarios in which Moore was cast as a seasoned, debonair playboy who would always have a trick or gadget in stock when he needed it. This was designed to serve the contemporary taste of the 1970s.

Moore's version of Bond was also known for his sense of humour and witty one liners. Moore himself said, "my personality is different from previous Bonds. I’m not that cold-blooded killer type. Which is why I play it mostly for laughs."

Roger was born in Stockwell, London, and was the only child of George Alfred Moore, a policeman (PC168E based in Bow Street, London), and Lillian "Lily" (Pope). Lew Grade lured Moore to star alongside Tony Curtis in “The Persuaders!”. The show featured the adventures of two millionaire playboys across Europe.

Moore was paid the then-unheard-of sum of £1 million for a single series, making him the highest paid television actor in the world. Lew Grade claimed in his autobiography “Still dancing”, that Moore and Curtis "didn't hit it off all that well". Curtis refused to spend more time on set than was strictly necessary, while Moore was always willing to work overtime.

Tony Curtis

Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925 – September 29, 2010) was an American film actor whose career spanned six decades but who achieved the height of his popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films in roles covering a wide range of genres, from light comedy to serious drama. In his later years, Curtis made numerous television appearances.

He gave what could arguably be called his best performance: three interrelated roles in the comedy “Some like it hot” in 1959. Thomson called it an "outrageous film," and an American Film Institute survey voted it the funniest American film ever made. The film co-starred Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, and was directed by Billy Wilder. That was followed by Blake Edwards’s “Operation petticoat” with Cary Grant in 1959. They were both frantic comedies, and displayed his impeccable comic timing.

His stardom and film career declined considerably after 1960. He later starred alongside Roger Moore in the ITC TV series “The Persuaders!”. Tony is the father of actresses Jamie Lee Curtis and Kelly Curtis by his first wife, actress Janet Leigh.

“To kiss Marilyn Monroe was like kissing Hitler. To me Marilyn was crazy like a horse.” Tony Curtis

“Women are beginning to lose their identity. They have jumped with teeth clenched, fists braced and eyes aglow, into the competitive man's world. They're losing the vibrant quality of femininity, the aura of mystery.” Tony Curtis

“You wanna know the secret of life? The saliva of young girls.” Tony Curtis

“I was born in and worked in a period that could be called enviable.” Tony Curtis

“Jack Lemmon is my best friend and he's a very wonderful actor. A very talented, very funny man. A lovely man. We're like brothers! We are gifts to each other. He's such a fun personality. There will only ever be one Jack Lemmon.” Tony Curtis

“They gave me away as a prize once - a “Win Tony Curtis for a weekend” competition. The woman who won was disappointed. She'd hoped for second prize - a new stove.” Tony Curtis

“It's been said that you can't understand anybody unless you understand their sexual life. A lot of people are frightened by that. Not me.” Tony Curtis

The Dino 246GT Ferrari driven by Danny Wilde (Tony Curtis) at the time of the filming of the series was privately owned and loaned to the production company by the original owner. The Dino received quite a lot of abuse during filming and was returned at the end. The car, whose chassis number is 00810, is in Italy today and still in private hands. It is the 405th Dino built (of which the first 150 were 206 GTs with 2-litre engines). The certificate of origin was issued on May 27th, 1970 by the Ferrari factory. The registration plates, MO 221400, were issued in Modena, Italy.

Sean Connery and Ursula Andress

Sean Connery

The quintessential of masculinity. The macho par excellence. A real man. Sean Connery, the most charming Scotsman in the world. For most he’s the very best James Bond ever, surely the most macho one. To his compatriots he is a national icon. To those who love adventure he’s the father of Indiana Jones. To Queen Elizabeth II he is one of the knights of the Kingdom.

For sure he’s one of the sexiest and most prolific actors of international cinema. Having an exceptional body (he’s 189 cm tall and worked out for years as a body builder), in 1962 he gets the role which changed his life, that of the spy James Bond in “Dr. No”. Success is immediate and global and turns him into a sex symbol. The actor will wear the emblematic tuxedo (and a toupee to hide early baldness) until the fear of being anchored in that part makes him look for new characters.

Well-loved from far away and unloved closely, Sean didn’t always have a good reputation among those working in the industry. Surly, rough, impossible to be interviewed, serial seducer: the picture that is painted of Connery by people who worked with him is not flattering.

Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930) was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films, between 1962 and 1983. His film career also includes such films as “Marnie”, “The name of the rose”, “The league of extraordinary gentlemen”, “Indiana Jones and the last crusade”, “The hunt for red October”, “Finding Forrester”, “Highlander”, “Murder on the Orient Express”, “Dragonheart”, and “The rock”.

Although Bond immediately showed extraordinarily good taste in automobiles and clothes, his wristwatch wasn’t identified until Fleming’s second novel, “Live and let die” in 1954. Bond wears a Rolex in this book. Fleming’s affection for Rolex is apparent in the first James Bond film, where Bond casually straps on a Rolex Submariner without a date display while hunting the nefarious Dr. No, for whom the movie is named. Reference 6358 has a leather strap here. Film buffs believe that this model was one of Sean Connery’s personal possessions.

1963/1964 James Bond remained faithful to Rolex in his second cinematic adventure, “From Russia with love”. The movie shows Connery wearing a Rolex Submariner, Reference 6538, which still shows just the time because Q, the famous master of innovative weaponry, hadn’t yet equipped 007’s watch with any other special capabilities. Connery again wears Reference 6538 in “Goldfinger”, where it’s attached to a much-too-narrow textile strap.

Sean Connery and Claudine Auger in Thunderball (1965).

“I like women. I don't understand them, but I like them.” Sean Connery

“I have always hated that damn James Bond. I'd like to kill him.” Sean Connery

“I haven't found anywhere in the world where I want to be all the time. The best of my life is the moving. I look forward to going.” Sean Connery

“There is nothing like a challenge to bring out the best in man.” Sean Connery

“I am not an Englishman, I was never an Englishman, and I don't ever want to be one. I am a Scotsman! I was a Scotsman and I will always be one.” Sean Connery

“It's a kind of madness in cosmopolitan cities now.” Sean Connery

Ursula Andress

The quintessential jet-set Euro starlet, Ursula Andress (born 19 March 1936) is a former model and sex symbol, who has appeared in American, British and Italian films. An hypnotic and captivating beauty, the queen-of-the-bikini. With her heavy eyeliner, messy hair and curves to die for, the 18 year-old established herself as cinema’s cheeky femme fatale, who won over James Dean with her Brigitte Bardot-style look just before his death.

The Swiss-American actress is best known for her breakthrough role as Bond girl Honey Ryder in 1962. She later starred as Vesper Lynd in the Bond film “Casino Royale”. Her other films include “Fun in Acapulco”, “She”, “The 10th victim”, “The blue Max”, “Perfect Friday”, “The sensuous nurse”, “The mountain of the cannibal God”, “The fifth musketeer” and “Clash of the Titans”.

From Dean Martin, to Elvis Presley and Sean Connery, she worked with some of the great stars of cinema.

The third of six children, she was born in Ostermundigen, Canton of Bern to a German couple, Anna, a landscape gardener, and Rolf Andress, a German diplomat who was expelled from Switzerland for political reasons. He disappeared during World War II. She has a brother and four sisters. She went to school in Berne until she was 16 and became fluent in French, German and Italian. She studied art in Paris for a year, then went to Rome.

She soon became internationally famous as in Bond’s “Dr. No” she rose out of the Caribbean Sea in a white bikini sporting a large diving knife on her hip. The scene made Andress a "quintessential" Bond girl. She later said: "this bikini made me into a success. As a result of starring in “Dr. No” as the first Bond girl, I was given the freedom to take my pick of future roles and to become financially independent." The bikini she wore in the film sold at auction in 2001 for £41.125.

In 1955 she began an affair with actor/director John Derek, a married father-of-two who walked out on his wife, Pati Behrs, and their family to be with 19-year-old Andress. They wed in 1957 in Las Vegas, but separated in 1963 (other sources say September 1965) and officially divorced in 1966.

She had romantic relationships with Jean-Paul Belmondo, Ryan O'Neal and Fabio Testi. And also with American actor Harry Hamlin after meeting on the set of “Clash of the Titans” in 1979. She gave birth to their son, Dimitri Hamlin, on 19 May 1980. In 1983, Hamlin broke up with her.

“Daniel Craig? My only Bond is Sean Connery,” Andress says. Sean and Ursula, united by a long friendship. She says: «Sean Connery, the sole 007. At 80 he has more charm.” Connery reached 80 and Andress spoke to him on the phone: “he was in Gstaad in Switzerland, we’ve stayed friends ever since, we have seen much of each other, I’ve never missed one of his overviews or his homages. In short the relationship started by chance, very naturally, in 1962 on the beach of Jamaica, never really stopped.”

But what was Sean (Bond) like in person? “A man of incredible humor and charm, like today there are absolutely no more, now they’re all Narcissus that look in a mirror and only care about themselves. Sean instead over the years is a lot better, he’s now one of the few real men left: he’s more and more interesting and has learned to do his very best. When I first met him he helped me, he was funny, never boring.”

And how did you get on theet? “Completely by a fluke and that’s were I met 007 and his author, Fleming, who was just like the character, he was even a secret agent. Awesome evenings when comedy writer Noel Coward also came to visit.”

To what do you owe that success, to physical measurements? “A stroke of luck, but in our family we were all like that.” But after so many years they still talk about it. “You are used to the “maggiorate”(big chested and assed ladies) breast, of Gina and Sophia and I arrived athletic, a gymnast, who was exercising and even now exercises many hours a day: it was a change of perspective that the public has accepted.“

You met the stars of the past. What do you have? “All, because those who came today do not exist, the star now is technology and everything is invented; yesterday was personality, each with his own. When I think of the skill and intelligence of the great Peter Sellers when we were shooting “What’s new Pussycat” I have a fit of nostalgia. Sadly you still talk of dear people who took to the air. How lucky that I knew the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s, the best of the century: we all had so much enthusiasm for the future.”

“I don't use my body to seduce, no. I just stand there.” Ursula Andress

“I hate to look at myself in a mirror, and I never go and see films.” Ursula Andress

“I hate the word sexy.” Ursula Andress

Tom Selleck

Thomas William Selleck (born January 29, 1945) is an American actor and film producer. He is known for starring as Thomas Magnum, a private investigator (P.I.) living on Oahu, Hawaii, in the American crime drama television series Magnum, P.I.. The series ran from 1980 to 1988. According to the Nielsen ratings, Magnum, P.I. consistently ranked in the top twenty U.S. television programs during the first five years of its original run in the United States.

Selleck has appeared in more than 50 film and television roles since Magnum, P.I., including “Three men and a baby”, “Quigley down under”, “Mr. Baseball”, and “Lassiter”. He appeared as Dr. Richard Burke on “Friends” and as A.J. Cooper on the TV series “Las Vegas”. He also had a lead role in several westerns based on Louis Lamore books, the Sacketts.

“I think a lot of Magnum was me.” Tom Selleck

“I think of myself as an actor first, not a sex symbol. Do I think I'm sexy? No, that's someone else's judgment, and I honestly don't think you can try to be sexy and really succeed.” Tom Selleck

The series Magnum P.I. has become famous partly because of very refined choices with regard to cars: In fact Selleck drives three different Ferrari, all belonging to the family of 308 (308 GTS, 308 GTSi and 308 GTS Quattrovalvole), model evolved over the years and gone from carbureted engine to fuel-injected one. At the time the production of the TV series turned directly to the US subsidiary of Prancing Horse and got five specimens, divided according to the tone of the footage. Ferrari bought back the 308 GTS Quattrovalvole after the end of works and sold it as demonstrative car to an American collector, Georgia Anne Walsh, who maintained it with great care: since then the car has traveled 50.000 kilometers. Over the past few years Walsh has restored the passenger compartment and installed a new exhaust system.

 

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