Paolo Stoppa


Biography

One of Italy's most celebrated film stars, Paolo Stoppa left behind an acting legacy that spans roughly six decades and hundreds of stage and screen appearances. A native of Rome, Stoppa began performing in the 1930s as part of the local company Teatro Eliseo, alongside future wife and film star Rina Morelli. Drawing on a repertoire of classical and contemporary works from Chekhov to Sha...

Biography

One of Italy's most celebrated film stars, Paolo Stoppa left behind an acting legacy that spans roughly six decades and hundreds of stage and screen appearances. A native of Rome, Stoppa began performing in the 1930s as part of the local company Teatro Eliseo, alongside future wife and film star Rina Morelli. Drawing on a repertoire of classical and contemporary works from Chekhov to Shakespeare, the company earned widespread critical acclaim throughout Italy. But it was in the postwar period, when the actor teamed up with neorealist directors Luchino Visconti, Vittorio de Sica, and Roberto Rossellini, that his career as a film star took flight. Lending compassionate performances to such classics of the genre as 1951's "Miracle in Milan," 1960's "Rocco and his Brothers," and Visconti's 1963 international breakthrough, "The Leopard," Stoppa, while by no means convincing as a leading man, emerged as a durable character player in Italian cinema, starring in a seemingly endless variety of films--from slapstick comedies to spaghetti westerns to melodramas--until his death in 1988.

Life Events

Videos

Movie Clip

Rocco And His Brothers (1960) -- (Movie Clip) Teeth Like A Wolf Weeks into their impoverished residence in Milan, southern Italian Rocco (Alain Delon) watches as his brother Simone (Renato Salvatori) gets some attention from a boxing promoter (Paolo Stoppa), about whom they perhaps should be suspicious, in Luchino Visconti's Rocco And His Brothers, 1960.
Gold Of Naples (1954) -- (Movie Clip) We All Have Our Issues Sofi (Sophia Loren) and husband (Giacomo Furia) intrude on the spectacular bereavement of Paolo Stoppa, whose wife died after he bought a pizza from them, into which her wedding ring (which we suspect she left with her lover) may have been baked, in the Pizza On Credit episode from Gold Of Naples, 1954.
Law, The (1960) -- (Movie Clip) I Need A Housekeeper Agronomist Enrico (Marcello Mastroianni) meets Sicilian town boss Don Cesare (Pierre Brasseur) and offers a job to Marietta (Gina Lollobrigida) whose mother and sisters (Anna Maria Bottini, Luisa Rivelli, Edda Soligo) want her to take it, in Jules Dassin's The Law, 1960.
Law, The (1960) -- (Movie Clip) With Marlon Brando Mother and sisters (Anna Maria Bottini, Luisa Rivelli, Edda Soligo) try to force Marietta (Gina Lollobrigida) to take a job, brother-in-law Tonino (famed comedian Paolo Stoppa) with a grim rescue, in Jules Dassin's The Law, 1960.
Wife For A Night -- (Movie Clip) Count D'Origo Composer Enrico (Armando Francioli), his uncle (Paolo Stoppa) accompanying, and wife Ottavia (Gina Lollobrigida, playing frumpy) get news of an important guest, early in Mario Camerini's Wife For A Night, 1952.

Bibliography