Emerging from a Florentine lineage linked to the historic Bentivoglio dynasty, he first pursued cartooning and set design before turning to the screen. After debuting in 1942, his reputation solidified with the 1943 role of a pretentious, falsely modest snob in Sergio Tofano’s adaptation of Gian Burrasca, a character type he would repeatedly embody. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s he balanced film…
