A boy from Calabria

31/10/2002

Raf Vallone is dead at 86. The young man from Calabria who came to Turin to become a professional footballer and went on to become an international film star died this morning in Rome’s Villa Pia. He was born on 17 February 1917 in Tropea and, together with his parents, moved to Turin where he became a professional soccer player for the Turin team. After two degrees (law and philosophy) he married the actress Elena Verzi. Vallone left the soccer field to become a journalist on the « Unità » daily newspaper where he met writers like Italo Calvino, Cesare Pavese, Davide Lajolo and Natalia Ginzburg.
Vallone then began a whole new career as an actor. His first taste of success came with Giuseppe De Santis’ masterpiece, Riso Amaro (1949), starring Vittorio Gassman and Silvana Mangano. Vallone starred in 80 films, the most memorable of which are El Cid directed by Anthony Mann and La Ciociara directed by Vittorio De Sica - both of which starred Sophia Loren - The Godfather IIII by Francis Ford Coppola and The Italian Job.
Vallone was a huge success in his 30-year stage career as well, and he won numerous awards in Italy and abroad. The high point was his 1958 Paris debut in Arthur Miller’s The View from the Bridge directed by Peter Brook.
In 2001 Vallone published his autobiography, The Alphabet of Memory.
Raf Vallone’s funeral will be held in Rome’s Church of the Artists in Piazza del Popolo on 1 November.