by Hal Erickson
biography
Italian leading man Amedeo Nazzari entered films in 1935, hitting his stride three years later as the title character in Luciano Serra, Pilot. At his peak, he made up to five films per year, few of which lost money. He gently chided his virile, romantic screen image as the self-absorbed movie star in Fellini's Nights of Cabiria (1957). Few of Nazzari's Italian-starring vehicles were widely distributed in the U.S., though he was a familiar character actor in such international productions as The Best of Enemies (1961) and The Valachi Papers (1972); he also occasionally functioned as a producer and screenwriter. Amedeo Nazzari was the father of actress Evalina Nazzari.
