Guido Alberti

Guido Alberti was an Italian actor who came to the screen late, making his mark in his fifties after years in industry. In 1947 he founded the Premio Strega literary prize before turning to acting. Federico Fellini cast him at fifty-three as the producer Pace in 8½ (1963), his first film role, and his imposing presence made him a sought-after character actor over three decades. He specialized in clergymen, from priest to bishop to cardinal and, in Marco the Magnificent (1965), the Pope, as well as in authority figures such as prison governors, police superintendents and prime ministers. Francesco Rosi gave him the part of a right-wing party leader in Hands Over the City (1963). He worked for Fellini, Rosi, Luis García Berlanga, Mario Monicelli, Valerio Zurlini and Roman Polanski, appeared in giallo thrillers and on television, and made his last film at eighty-three. He died in 1996.