Adolfo Celi
Biography
Adolfo Celi was an Italian film actor, writer, and director, born on July 27, 1922, in Messina, Sicily, Italy. He was a successful stage actor in Argentina and Brazil and directed three films in South America in the 1950s, including the Brazilian hit Tico-Tico no Fubá in 1952.
He began his career in Philippe de Broca's That Man from Rio, as a villain, selected by DeBroca on location in Rio de Janeiro. After that he was cast as a villain in the films, Von Ryan's Express, Thunderball, Mario Bava's action thriller Danger: Diabolik, and the celebrated Fernando Di Leo's Poliziottesco film Hired to Kill. He married three times and died of a heart attack in Siena in 1986.
His daughter Veronica Lazar, Alessandra Celi, is an actress. Celi appeared as a protagonist in some Italian comedies and did some television work, like in the mini-series Petrosino and La Baronessa di Carini. He was fluent in several languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, and Portuguese, but despite his proficiency in English, he was usually dubbed in English language films.
