Terence Hill

Mario Girotti, better known by his stage name Terence Hill, was born in Venice in 1939 to an Italian father and a German mother, in fact the family was near Dresden when the city was bombed during World War II. It is not surprising, since his blond hair and blue eyes, compatible with a very Latino mischievous air, would fit perfectly with the roles that make up his acting career and the intention of passing off as Anglo-Saxon before international audiences. He had 24 hours and a list of 20 names to decide how he would be known by viewers, and Terence Hill was chosen because of the coincidence of his mother’s upside-down initials, to which other sources add his taste for classic literature. –he studied it at the University of Rome– and the theater, specifically that of Terence.

The fact that he made his film debut at the age of twelve in the film Vacanze col gangster gives an idea of ​​how smart Mario was . He made movies throughout the 1950s, for example in peplums like The Sword and the Cross (1958) and Aníbal (1959), with Victor Mature . They were small roles and in titles of little importance, but Girotti was entrenched in the trade. In a Spanish-Italian co-production, he would act with Sara Montiel in Pecado de amor (1961) and two years later he was in a masterpiece, an adaptation of a classic of Italian literature, The Leopard by Luchino Visconti , based on the work ofGiuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa .

From this moment on, piecework emerged in co-productions with Germany or Spain in spaghetti-westerns such as La carabina de plata (1964), El asalta de los apaches (1964) and the bizarre Rita en el West (1967), a western musical with Rita Pavone . In addition, under the orders of Harald Reinl , he shoots The Nibelungs (1966) in two installments .

It would have been inexcusable if the actor had not met Carlo Pedersoli, that is, Bud Spencer , but it happened almost by chance when the expected Peter Martell had to be replaced, due to an injury, in You forgive… I don’t (1967), which Giuseppe Colizzi was filming in Almería. It was the film in which both actors chose the stage name by which they are known, and the beginning of a partnership that would span nearly twenty films. He also met what would be his wife, Lori Zwicklbauer, with whom he had a daughter, Jess, as well as adopting another, Ross, who would die tragically in a car accident.

Westerns would still continue seriously, so to speak, and alone, like The Clan of the Hanged (1968), where Django was, but in 1970 a new concept would emerge, that of western comedy with perfectly choreographed thumps and doing couple with Bud Spencer, They Called Him Trinity (1970), whichever way you look at it Enzo Barboni delivered an unmitigated classic, which would give rise to so many titles of the same kind, including the Hollywood imitation, the parody of the western by Mel Brooks Chairs riding hot Somehow what Sergio Leone he did by giving his westerns his personal operatic tone, Barboni would do with his westerns, even with his Americanized stage name, EB Clucher.

Louder guys! (1972), And if not… we get angry(1974) and others were similar titles. Hadn’t Terence Hill fallen into the typecasting trap? According to the actor, it was he who had chosen such a typecasting, a conscious and responsible choice. He claimed to have been impressed with the comment of a mother, who thanked him for making fun and highly entertaining films for all audiences, to which he could take his children. Indeed, this physical humor was very successful, even Bud Spencer said that the Italian stuntmen were the best, just as the Americans were good at car scenes and the Spanish were good at horse scenes. The point is that Hill thought that, although he was capable of dramatic roles, he preferred to focus on this family cinema. Even so, he tried the Hollywood adventure in 1977,The Billion Dollar Heir with Jackie Gleason , and March or Die , with Gene Hackman , Catherine Deneuve and Max Von Sydow , but it was short-lived, he was not satisfied with the experience. So he followed the tapes with Bud, like Odd-Even (1978) and I’m with the Hippos (1979), again super popular. Not surprisingly, many of the pair’s titles used the “super” prefix.

Terence and Bud, one skinny and rascally, the other more basic, thick and ruthless, could make one think of Asterix and Obelix. Not surprisingly, Hill thought of another René Goscinny character , Lucky Luke, to embody on screen in Lucky Luke (1991), although perhaps his age, 52, was too much for the character.

Another popular character for all audiences that he wanted to play was the priest Don Camilo, although without a doubt Don Camilo (1984) did not surpass the previous films in which Fernandel had managed to make it clear that he was the character in perpetual and friendly enmity with him. communist priest Peppone. It was his first film as a director, a role that he repeated in the aforementioned Lucky Luke and in And on Christmas Eve… The nativity scene was set up! (1994), last film with Bud Spencer. In 2010 the two actors would be rightly recognized with a David di Donatello in recognition of their entire career and the chemistry they have exhibited.

He must have liked playing the priest, for another clergyman of a different bearing, distantly related to Father Brown of Chesterton by his detective skills, has given him just fame in the latter part of his career. The Don Matteo series has been on the air for more than two decades on Italian television, since 2000, with great success; there the actor plays the protagonist, already over eighty years old. In addition, in 2018 he directed a film again, My name is Thomas , with him as the protagonist in an existential crisis who marches into the Almería desert on his Harley, which allowed him to show his passion for motorcycles on screen.