Lamberto Maggiorani

Lamberto Maggiorani (28 August 1909 – 22 April 1983) was an Italian actor remembered for his portrayal of Antonio Ricci in the 1948 Vittorio De Sica film Bicycle Thieves.[1]

Lamberto Maggiorani
Lamberto Maggiorani in Ladri di Biciclette.
Born	(1909-08-28)28 August 1909 Rome, Italy
Died	22 April 1983(1983-04-22) (aged 73) Rome, Italy
Years active	1948–1970

He was a factory worker (he worked as a turner) and non-professional actor at the time he was cast in this film.[2] He earned 600,000 lire ($1,000 US) for his performance, enabling him to buy new furniture and treat his family to a vacation; but when he returned to the factory he was laid off because business was slackening and management felt it would be fairer to terminate him instead of other impoverished co-workers since he was perceived to have "made millions" as a movie star.[3] He found occasional work as a bricklayer, but continued to try to get roles in movies, with little success; even de Sica was reluctant to employ him as anything other than an extra.[4] Pier Paolo Pasolini gave him a bit part in the film Mamma Roma (1962) due to his iconic status in Italian cinema.[4] Cesare Zavattini, the screenwriter for Bicycle Thieves, aware of Maggiorani's predicament, wrote a screenplay about him titled "Tu, Maggiorani", in an attempt to demonstrate the limits of neorealist film's capacity to change the world.[4]

Maggiorani died in Rome in 1983 at the San Giovanni hospital without ever regaining his first success as a film actor.