# Umberto Orsini

Umberto Orsini (born 2 April 1934) is an Italian actor. He achieved prominence as a stage actor in Luchino Visconti's company, before becoming known to general audiences for his roles in RAI television dramas. He won the Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Visconti's The Damned (1969), and was nominated for the David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Early Bird Catches the Worm (2008).

## Early life

Orisini was born in Novara in the Piedmont region of northern Italy, on 2 April 1934. Prior to pursuing an acting career, he worked as a notary. He enrolled in the Accademia Nazionale di Arte Drammatica Silvio D'Amico in Rome, and graduated in 1954.

## Career

He began his professional stage career as a founding member of Milan's Compagnia dei Giovani, under the direction of Giorgio De Lullo and Romolo Valli. He performed with the Paolo Stoppa and Rina Morelli's company in a 1960 production of L'Arialda, directed by Luchino Visconti, and achieved critical praise for his performance as 'Nick' in a production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, opposite Enrico Maria Salerno. He performed extensively with Gabriele Lavia for the Teatro Eliseo, of which he was the artistic director between 1980 and 1997.
After a minor role in Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita, Orsini made his official film debut in the 1960 film Love in Rome. After several supporting roles, including in the star-studded international production Candy, Orsini made his breakthrough in Visconti's The Damned, playing a disillusioned industrialist in 1930s Germany whose anti-Nazi views leave him a target of the new regime. The role earned Orsini praise from Italian critics, and he won that year's Nastro d'Argento for Best Supporting Actor.
He would collaborate again with Visconti in the 1973 historical epic Ludwig, which also reunited him with Damned co-stars Helmut Berger and Helmut Griem. Outside his native Italy, Orsini also worked in French cinema. notably playing the husband of the title character in Emmanuelle 2 and Goodbye Emmanuelle.
Orsini found success on Italian television, becoming a regular fixture of RAI programming. He co-hosted the Sunday morning cooking show Colazione allo studio 7 with Luigi Veronelli.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | Original title | English title | Role | Director | Notes |
| 1957 | Marisa la civetta | — | Sailor | Mauro Bolognini | Uncredited |
| 1960 | Un amore a Roma | Love in Rome | Peppino Barlacchi | Dino Risi | |
| 1960 | La Dolce Vita | — | Man in Shades | Federico Fellini | Uncredited |
| 1960 | Chiamate 22-22 tenente Sheridan | — | Tommy | Giorgio Bianchi | |
| 1961 | Io bacio... tu baci | — | Paolo | Piero Vivarelli | |
| 1961 | Il Pianeta degli uomini spenti | Battle of the Worlds | Dr. Fred Steele | Antonio Margheriti | |
| 1961 | Caccia all'uomo | — | Giovanni Maimonti | Riccardo Freda | |
| 1962 | Il mare | The Sea | The Actor | Giuseppe Patroni Griffi | |
| 1963 | Il giorno più corto | The Shortest Day | Soldier | Sergio Corbucci | Uncredited |
| 1963 | Noche de verano | — | Miguel Solinas | Jorge Grau | |
| 1963 | Les Bonnes Causes | Don't Tempt the Devil | Philliet | Christian-Jaque | |
| 1963 | Strip-tease | Sweet Skin | Dancer | Jacques Poitrenaud | |
| 1965 | La violenza e l'amore | The Myth | Roberto | Adimaro Sala | |
| 1966 | Playgirl | That Woman | Timo | Will Tremper | |
| 1966 | Mademoiselle | Mademoiselle | Antonio | Tony Richardson | |
| 1966 | Ta skalopatia | The Steps | Roberto | Leonard Hirschfield | |
| 1967 | The Sailor from Gibraltar | The Sailor from Gibraltar | Postcard Vendor | Tony Richardson | |
| 1967 | La Ragazza e il Generale | The Girl and the General | Pvt. Tarasconi | Pasquale Festa Campanile | |
| 1968 | Candy | Candy | The Big Guy | Christian Marquand | |
| 1969 | La caduta degli dei | The Damned | Herbert Thallman | Luchino Visconti | |
| 1969 | Interrabang | — | Fabrizio Berti | Giuliano Biagetti | |
| 1970 | Ein großer graublauer Vogel | A Big Grey-Blue Bird | Morelli | Thomas Schamoni | |
| 1970 | Città violenta | Violent City | Steve | Sergio Sollima | |
| 1970 | Incontro d'amore | Bali | Carlo | Ugo Liberatore | |
| 1971 | Roma bene | — | Prince Rubio Marescalli | Carlo Lizzani | |
| 1972 | Abuso di potere | Shadows Unseen | Enrico Gagliardi | Camillo Bazzoni | |
| 1972 | César et Rosalie | César and Rosalie | Antoine | Claude Sautet | |
| 1972 | I figli chiedono perché | — | Michèle's Father | Nino Zanchin | |
| 1972 | Un homme est mort | The Outside Man | Alex Kovacs | Jacques Deray | |
| 1973 | La Tosca | Tosca | Cesare Angelotti | Luigi Magni | |
| 1973 | Ludwig | Ludwig | Count Maximilian von Holnstein | Luchino Visconti | |
| 1973 | Il delitto Matteotti | The Assassination of Matteotti | Amerigo Dumini | Florestano Vancini | |
| 1973 | Tony Arzenta | No Way Out | Isnello | Duccio Tessari | |
| 1973 | Storia di una monaca di clausura | Story of a Cloistered Nun | Don Diego | Domenico Paolella | |
| 1974 | L’uomo senza memoria | Puzzle | Daniele | Duccio Tessari | |
| 1974 | Verdict | Verdict | Doctor | André Cayatte | Uncredited |
| 1974 | Vincent, François, Paul et les autres | Vincent, François, Paul and the Others | Jacques | Claude Sautet | |
| 1974 | L'anticristo | The Antichrist | Dr. Marcello Sinibaldi | Alberto De Martino | |
| 1975 | Corruzione al palazzo di giustizia | Smiling Maniacs | Erzi | Marcello Aliprandi | |
| 1975 | Emmanuelle: L'antivierge | Emmanuelle 2 | Jean | Francis Giacobetti | |
| 1976 | Perdutamente tuo... mi firmo Macaluso Carmelo fu Giuseppe | — | Vito Buscemi | Vittorio Sindoni | |
| 1976 | Une femme à sa fenêtre | A Woman at Her Window | Rico Santorini | Pierre Granier-Deferre | |
| 1977 | Une fille cousue de fil blanc | A Straight Laced Girl | Frédéric | Michel Lang | |
| 1977 | Casanova & Co. | Casanova & Co. | Count Tiretta | Franz Antel | |
| 1977 | L'avvocato della mala | Gangbuster | Farnese | Alberto Marras | |
| 1977 | Al di là del bene e del male | Beyond Good and Evil | Bernhard Förster | Liliana Cavani | |
| 1977 | Goodbye Emmanuelle | Goodbye Emmanuelle | Jean | François Leterrier | |
| 1978 | L'alba dei falsi dei | The Fifth Commandment | Sturmführer Hannacker / Vater Redder | Duccio Tessari | |
| 1978 | La petite fille en velours bleu | Little Girl in Blue Velvet | Fabrizio Conti | Alan Bridges | |
| 1978 | L'argent des autres | Other People's Money | Blue | Christian de Chalonge | |
| 1980 | Bionda fragola | — | Antonio | Mino Bellei | |
| 1994 | Elles n'oublient jamais | — | Vienne | Christopher Frank | |
| 1995 | Pasolini, un delitto italiano | Who Killed Pasolini? | Magistrate | Marco Tullio Giordana | |
| 1997 | Il viaggio della sposa | The Bride's Journey | Don Diego | Sergio Rubini | |
| 1998 | L'ospite | — | Antonio | Alessandro Colizzi | |
| 2000 | Il partigiano Johnny | Johnny the Partisan | Pinin | Guido Chiesa | |
| 2003 | Hannover | — | Aiello | Ferdinando Vicentini Orgnani | |
| 2004 | L'amore ritorna | Love Returns | Dr. Ambrosini | Sergio Rubini | |
| 2008 | Il mattino ha l'oro in bocca | The Early Bird Catches the Worm | Uncle Lino | Francesco Patierno | |
| 2017 | Agadah | — | Belial | Alberto Rondalli | |
| 2022 | Marcel! | Marcel! | Nonno | Jasmine Trinca | |
| 2024 | Trifole | Trifole | Igor | Gabriele Fabbro | |

### Television

| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1959-60 | Giallo club. Invito al poliziesco | Ronald / Robert | 2 episodes |
| 1960 | La casa sull'acqua | Luca | Television film |
| 1963 | Lo zoo di vetro | Tom Wingfield | Television film |
| 1963 | Gli spettri | Oswald Alving | Television film |
| 1964 | I grandi camaleonti | Tallien | Miniseries: 4 episodes |
| 1964 | Vita di Michelangelo | Tommaso dei Cavalieri | Episode #1.3 |
| 1964 | Biblioteca di Studio Uno | Brent Tarleton | Episode: "La storia di Rossella O'Hara" |
| 1965 | Coriolano | Tullo Aufidio | Television film |
| 1965 | La figlia del capitano | Pyotr Andreyich Grinyov | Miniseries: 6 episodes |
| 1966 | Il re | Duca di Savoia | Television film |
| 1968 | Morte di un commesso viaggiatore | Biff Loman | Television film |
| 1969 | I fratelli Karamazov | Ivan Karamazov | Miniseries: 6 episodes |
| 1977 | Processo a Maria Tarnowska | Demiat Prilukoff | Miniseries: 3 episodes |
| 1978 | Cinéma 16 | Clown | Episode: "Thomas Guérin, retraité" |
| 1979 | Racconti di fantascienza | General Guarnerius | Episode: "O.B.N. in arrivo" |
| 1979 | I racconti fantastici di Edgar Allan Poe | Robert Usher | Episode: "Ligeia forever" |
| 1980 | Orient-Express | Gaetano | Episode: "Jane" |
| 1982 | Colomba | Colonel Neville | Television film |
| 1984 | Notti e nebbie | Bruno Spada | Television film |
| 1997 | Solomon | Nathan | Television film |
| 1999 | Esther | Memucan | Television film |
| 2000 | Lourdes | Père Laurent | Television film |
| 2000 | St. Paul | Tribune | Miniseries: 2 episodes |
| 2013 | Gourmet Wars | Leone | 11 episodes |

## Awards and recognition

| Award | Year | Category | Work | Result |
| David di Donatello | 2008 | Best Supporting Actor | The Early Bird Catches the Worm | Nominated |
| Nastro d'Argento | 1970 | Best Supporting Actor | The Damned | Won |
| Kineo Award | 2008 | Best Supporting Actor | The Early Bird Catches the Worm | Nominated |