Gian Maria Volonté
Date of birth: 1933-04-09
Place of birth: Milano, Lombardia, Italy
Known for: Acting
Also known as: Johnny Wels, Gian-Maria Volonte, Джан Мария Волонте
Biography
Gian Maria Volonté (9 April 1933 – 6 December 1994) was an Italian actor. He is perhaps most famous outside of Italy for his roles as the main villain in Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars (credited in the USA as "Johnny Wels") and For a Few Dollars More. In Italy and much of Europe, he was notable for his roles in high-profile social dramas depicting the political and social stirrings of Italian and European society in the 1960s and 1970s, including four films directed by Elio Petri - We Still Kill the Old Way (1967), Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion (1971), The Working Class Goes to Heaven (1971) and Todo modo (1976). He is also recognized for his performances in Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Cercle Rouge (1970) and Giuliano Montaldo's Sacco & Vanzetti (1971). Description above from the Wikipedia article Gian Maria Volonté, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movie Credits
For a Few Dollars More
1965-12-18
Two bounty hunters both pursue the brutal and sadistic bandit, El Indio, who has a large bounty on h
Journey Beneath the Desert
1961-05-05
A helicopter crashes in the desert, and the crew winds up in the underground city of Atlantis and ge
Le Cercle Rouge
1970-10-19
When French criminal Corey gets released from prison, he resolves to never return. He is quickly pul
Investigation of a Citizen Above Suspicion
1970-10-16
Rome, Italy. After committing a heinous crime, a senior police officer exposes evidence incriminatin
Rosi About Eboli
2022-11-16
An exceptional documentary filmed in 1978 by Swedish directors Björn Blixt and Peter Englesson showi
Christ Stopped at Eboli
1979-02-23
In the fascist Italy of 1935, a painter trained as a doctor is exiled to a remote region near Eboli.
Hercules and the Captive Women
1961-08-19
King Androcles of Thebes commands a ship in search of a threat to Greece, predicted by an atmospheri
Open Doors
1990-03-29
Tommaso Scalia is a man who commits three murders: he kills his superior who sacked him, the man who
A Bullet for the General
1967-01-13
El Chuncho's bandits rob arms from a train, intending to sell the weapons to Elias' revolutionaries.
The Witch
1966-09-16
A historian goes to a castle library to translate some ancient erotic literature. While there he dis
The Mattei Affair
1972-01-26
Enrico Mattei helped change Italy’s future, first as freedom-fighter against the Nazis, then as an i
The Moro Affair
1986-11-20
On March 16, 1978, far-left terrorists of the Red Brigades kidnap Aldo Moro, leader of the Christian
Face to Face
1967-11-23
History Professor Brad Fletcher heads west for his health, but falls in with Solomon Bennett's outla
The Abyss
1988-05-13
The Inquisition is in full swing in 16th century Flanders. Wanted for his dissident writings, the al
Operation Ogre
1979-09-28
Spain, 1973. Dictator Francisco Franco has ruled the country since 1939 with an iron fist; but he is
Giordano Bruno
1973-11-29
Fleeing from his enemies in the Catholic Church, the free thinking philosopher, poet and scientist G
The Four Days of Naples
1962-11-16
September 1943. After Italy surrenders to the Allies, people in Naples believe the war is finally ov
Sacco & Vanzetti
1971-03-16
Boston, 1920. Italian immigrants Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are charged and unfairly tried
Slap the Monster on Page One
1972-10-19
Days before the general election, after a girl from a rich family is murdered in an attempted rape,
One Way or Another
1976-04-30
Set during a retreat of Christian Democrat politicians who practice spiritual exercises together, it
Lady of the Camelias
1981-02-26
A young girl from the provinces, comes to Paris with one goal: to become a part of the rich bourgeoi
Girl with a Suitcase
1961-02-09
Lorenzo, who's 16 and born to a wealthy family in Parma, tries to make things right toward a showgir
We Still Kill the Old Way
1967-02-24
A leftist professor wants the truth about two men killed during a hunting party; but the mafia, the
The Working Class Goes to Heaven
1971-09-17
After losing a finger in a work accident, an Italian worker becomes increasingly involved in politic
The Violent Four
1968-03-29
A detective is assigned to head a manhunt for four violent bank robbers.
I Am Afraid
1977-10-06
During a wave of political violence in Italy, a policeman who's already survived an assassination is
A Boy from Calabria
1987-09-11
Set in 1960, the year of the Rome Olympics, a 13 year-old boy with aspirations to become an athlete
Many Wars Ago
1970-09-17
Time after time, soldiers of the Italian Army are forced to leave their mountain trenches in attempt
Lucky Luciano
1973-10-19
Lucky Luciano is one of the bosses of the Mafia. He orders the slaughter of 40 other responsibles, t
On the Tiger's Back
1961-12-20
Giacinto Rossi, a poor driver up to his neck in debt, is imprisoned for simulated crime. He finds hi
A Simple Story
1991-09-12
After many years, a retired diplomat returns to his native Sicily to visit an abandoned property and
The Suspect
1975-02-21
Fascism has forced the leadership of the Italian Communist Party to settle in Paris. In Italy arrest
Wake Up and Die
1966-04-06
A petty hoodlum pulls jewellery store heists in broad daylight. The cop on his tail knows he has acc
Seasons of Our Love
1966-03-25
Vittorio is a 40-year-old journalist who reaches a mid-life crisis. His wife nags him constantly for
The Assassination
1972-10-04
Darien, a left-wing police informant, is forced to lure his old friend Sadiel to Paris, allegedly to
The Death of Mario Ricci
1983-05-25
A TV reporter and his assisstant go to a small Swiss village to do a programme with a reclusive scie
The Bandit
1969-01-29
Sicily, 1865. Two peasants, Gramigna and his father are tricked by Baron Nardò and robbed of their f
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
1987-05-08
This suspenseful Italian crime drama is set in a Colombian river town and chronicles the series of e
The Magnificent Cuckold
1964-10-19
Andrea Artusi is a successful businessman with a beautiful wife, Maria, and a happy marriage - until
The Seven Cervi Brothers
1968-02-16
The story of the Cervi family. Rural farmers brought up to be idealogically opposed to fascism durin
The Terrorist
1963-10-25
In Venice in 1943, a group of partisans led by Renato Braschi organize a series of autonomous terror
Banderas, the Tyrant
1993-11-19
In Santa Fe de Tierra Firme, an imaginary Latin American country, the indigenous dictator Santos Ban
A Man for Burning
1962-10-26
Political activist Salvatore returns to his native Sicily and stirs up trouble among the peasants, u
Pestalozzi's Mountain
1989-03-17
In the 1770s, Swiss farmer Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi established a school for poor orphaned childre
Apollon: una fabbrica occupata
1969-04-20
The film documents the trade union battle of the workers of the Apollon printing house in Rome, occu
La tenda in piazza
1972-02-19
The film recounts the struggle of the factory workers of five Italian factories, Cagli, Coca Cola, F
Summit
1968-10-16
Paolo, a special guest of an Italian newspaper, leaves for Paris to attend an international conferen
Documenti su Giuseppe Pinelli
1970-01-01
The film examines the death of the anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli, who fell from the fourth floor of the
Stark System
1980-03-14
Armenia Balducci's film, featuring Gian Maria Volontè as Stark, a cop-movie actor that falls prey to
The Felling of the Forest
1963-09-18
In the forested slopes surrounding the rural Tuscan village of Tirli, a group of lumberjacks work lo
Phaedra
1957-02-26
Theatre play adaptation of Jean Racine's Phaedra filmed for TV.
Summer Night
1963-06-03
Barcelona in the early sixties: black and white chronicle of the ups and downs in the relationship o
Wind from the East
1970-08-19
A politically oriented film in which images suggestive of a mock western are accompanied by an attac
Elio Petri: Notes About a Filmmaker
2005-09-03
A documentary on the director’s career, featuring interviews with friends, collaborators, and filmma
A Gangstergirl
1966-10-13
A successful young writer is in search of his true destiny. Is it the life with his wife and typewri
Letters from Marusia
1975-12-26
Chronicle of the repression that a foreign company exerts on the miners of a small nitrate town in C
We Are Cinema
2021-12-16
An Italian documentary about Italian cinema.
Tre colonne in cronaca
1990-03-09
Chronicle of the dark maneuvers put into practice by a politician to seize an opposition newspaper.
Forgotten Activism
2017-01-01
Volonté, the militant. How many people know this singular and important aspect of the great Milanese
Under the Sign of Scorpio
1969-04-04
An island has been decimated by a volcanic eruption and the few survivors escape to a nearby island.
Funes, a Great Love
1993-04-01
A group of musicians, prostitutes, gamblers, and laborers, react to the arrival of a tango pianist a
Under Ten Flags
1960-09-15
"Under Ten Flags" is a WWII movie loosely based on the true story of the German navy commerce raide
Investigation of a Citizen Named Volonté
2004-01-12
Indagine su un cittadino di nome Volonté is a documentary exploring the life and career of Italian a
Un attore contro - Gian Maria Volonté
2005-10-29
A portrait of the famous italian actor and political activist Gian Maria Volonté.
Caravaggio
1967-10-15
A miniseries about Caravaggio's life.
A Fistful of Dollars
1964-09-12
The Man With No Name enters the Mexican village of San Miguel in the midst of a power struggle among
For Love and Gold
1966-04-07
A group of rogues steal a scroll granting its bearer the property of the land of Aurocastro in Apuli
Zénon the Rebel
2019-12-11
Zénon is the hero of “The Abyss”, the famous novel by Marguerite Yourcenar published in 1968. He is
La strada più lunga
1965-11-24
Michele, a bourgeois intellectual, adhered to fascism for years. After fighting abroad, he returns h
Spanish Western
2015-05-04
A vindication of the role of the technicians and artists who made spaghetti western genre possible,
Reflections on a Political Cinema
1978-07-05
This documentary addresses the challenges facing the Italian film industry in 1978 by focusing on th
Ipotesi sulla morte di G. Pinelli
1970-01-01
After a wave of arrests in 1969, Italian anarchist Giuseppe Pinelli allegedly falls out of a police
Volonté: The Man of a Thousand Faces
2024-09-23
A documentary exploring the life and legacy of renowned Italian actor Gian Maria Volonté, featuring
Saul
1959-11-06
Television play adaptation of Vittorio Alfieri's tragedy Saul (1782).