Dark, rugged and exceedingly good-looking, Italian actor Ettore Manni was a familiar presence in Neopolitan romancers and costumers. He also gave added stature to a number of peplum films and spaghetti westerns of the 1960s. On screen from 1952, he appeared in over 100 films in his close to three-decade career. Popular in his native country, he played opposite Italy's most scintillating leading ladies in his early movies -- Sophia Loren, Eleonora Rossi Drago and Gianna Maria Canale, to name a few, often playing the continental lover.Manni was born on May 6, 1927, in Rome, Italy, and came to films in 1952 with La traite des blanches (1952) [Frustrations] starring Rossi-Drago in which he was third billed. In 1952 and 1953 he was handed prime leads and supports in the Carlo Ponti/Dino De Laurentiis productions of Les trois corsaires (1952) [The Three Pirates], Fratelli d'Italia (1952), La louve de Calabre (1953) and Le navire des filles perdues (1953) the last two co-starring Kerima and May Britt. Ponti also paired Manni opposite his sultry-eyed wife Sophia Loren in Deux nuits avec Cléopatre (1954) playing Marc Antony to Loren's Cleopatra.Other strong roles followed for Manni. He played the brother of Anthony Quinn's Attila fléau de Dieu (1954), and was reunited with Rossi-Drago in both Donne sole (1956) and Femmes entre elles (1955), as well as with both Kerima and May Britt in Duel en Sicile (1953). The quality of Manni's films declined into the late 50s and 60s but he found himself quite busy in such lowbudget fare as La révolte des gladiateurs (1958), Le pirate de l'épervier noir (1958) and Diez fusiles esperan (1959). He also appeared opposite lovely Linda Cristal's Cleopatra in Les légions de Cléopâtre (1959) and the equally fetching Debra Paget as La vallée des pharaons (1960).Sword-and-sandal spectacles became the rage during this time and Manni took full advantage with supporting roles in Hercule à la conquête de l'Atlantide (1961) starring Reg Park as the muscular titan, Goliath et le cavalier masqué (1963), La terreur des Kirghiz (1964) and Fort Alésia (1964) with Richard Harrison as the muscled hero. Manni also jumped on the "spaghetti western" bandwagon years later with appearances in the films Ringo au pistolet d'or (1966), Trois cavaliers pour fort Yuma (1966), Un homme, un cheval et un pistolet (1967), Starblack (1966), Et maintenant... recommande ton âme à Dieu (1968), Le fossoyeur (1969) and Inginocchiati straniero... I cadaveri non fanno ombra! (1970).Outside of Italy, Manni, who grew stockier in later years, could be found playing priests and officer parts. He appeared as Jason in a couple of the popular French "Angelique" series with Indomptable Angélique (1967) and Angélique et le Sultan (1968). Manni also lent support to a number of imported American/British male leads past their prime who found headlining work in Italy. These included Alerte sur le Vaillant (1962) starring John Mills, Les Vikings attaquent (1962) starring Cameron Mitchell, De l'or pour César (1963) starring Jeffrey Hunter; Rome contre Rome (1964) starring John Drew Barrymore, La bataille de El Alamein (1969) with Frederick Stafford, and in Incontro d'amore (1970) with John Steiner. A supreme showcase role came his way during this period when he appeared opposite Jeanne Moreau in Mademoiselle (1966).In the early 1970s, Manni met gorgeous Austrian-born actress Krista Nell, who had leads and second leads in French and Italian films. Although they did not marry, they became longtime companions. They showed up together in the films Sartana... si ton bras gauche te gêne, coupe-le! (1970) Les belles au bois dormantes (1970) and Karzan, le maître de la jungle (1972). Sadly, Nell was diagnosed with leukemia and lost her battle against the disease in Rome in 1975. She was only 28.The grief-stricken Manni suffered from chronic depression following her death but continued to work in Italy, appearing in Pronto ad uccidere (1976), Oh, Serafina! (1976), La bidonata (1977), Selle d'argent (1978), Le malade imaginaire (1979), La vérité sur l'affaire Savolta (1980), along with many TV projects.Much now has been said over the controversy of the actor's untimely death on July 27, 1979 in Rome. It was originally believed that the 52-year-old Manni, an avid gun collector, accidentally shot himself in the groin while cleaning or handling a gun. It is now believed he committed suicide. His final film, Federico Fellini's La cité des femmes (1980) in which he supported Marcello Mastroianni, was released posthumously. Show less «