Actor / Director Profile

Giuliano Gemma was born in Rome on 2 September 1938, grew up in Reggio Emilia but came back to Rome with his parents in 1944. While he was playing on the grass he found a WW II bomb that exploded and today the signs of injury are still visible on his face. He practiced many sports in his life, boxing, gymnastics, tennis etc. In the early years of his youth he discovered a great passion for the cinema, he knew the most important Italian actors and his idle Burt Lancaster and decided to start acting. In the beginning, he worked as stunt-man, then the director, Duccio Tessari, gave him the first role as protagonist in the film "Arrivano i Titani". However, his first big opportunity came with the important Italian director, Luchino Visconti, where he played the role of the "General". This was followed by important roles in "Angelica", and the first spaghetti western films where he often worked under the name of Montgomery Wood. Then he played his most important roles in Il deserto dei Tartari and il Prefetto di Ferro. He won important prizes like Festival of Karlovy Vary and the Grolla d'Oro in San Vincent Festival.In the last years Gemma has discovered another great passion, sculpture. In fact he has become rather skilled. He is the father of actress Vera Gemma.