Enzo Cerusico

Enzo Cerusico (22 October 1937 – 26 November 1991) was an Italian film actor. He appeared in more than 50 films between 1948 and 1984.

Enzo Cerusico
Born(1937-10-22)22 October 1937
Rome, Italy
Died26 November 1991(1991-11-26) (aged 54)
Rome, Italy
OccupationActor

Life and career

The son of a production manager, Cerusico started his career as a child actor in 1948, playing a role of weight in Alessandro Blasetti's Heart and Soul.[1] He studied acting first at the Accademia Sharoff and later with Alessandro Fersen, and had his breakout on stage in the 1960s, playing the title role in Meo Patacca.[1][2]

Career in the United States

Cerusico's first role on American television was in a 1966 episode of I Spy filmed in Rome. Producer Sheldon Leonard held a casting call for an English-speaking actor to play the kid brother of the female Italian guest star. Cerusico spoke no English but with a friend's help he memorized one line — "I studied English in the school since four years" — and managed to bluff his way into an interview with Leonard.[3]

Leonard realized Cerusico wasn't fluent in English but he thought the young man possessed "Jean Paul Belmondo's jaunty virility and the swaggering charm of Maurice Chevalier." Leonard chose Cerusico for the I Spy guest role and Cerusico learned his lines phonetically and delivered them by rote.[3]

Cerusico later played the title character in My Friend Tony, an hour-long crime drama that aired on NBC in 1969.[4]

Personal life

Cerusico's family had hoped he would follow tradition and become a physician. But during his teen years, Cerusico realized he wouldn't be a good doctor and decided he "didn't want to be one among many, a mediocre."[3]

While living in Los Angeles during filming of My Friend Tony, Enzo and Tiziana learned English by reading Ernest Hemingway's short stories and watching Walter Cronkite's evening newscasts. The couple used an audio tape recorder to record the CBS Evening News each night and replayed the tape three times, Enzo said: "First for the separate words, then for the sentences and finally to find out what the news was." Publicity materials released in 1969 for My Friend Tony gave the 32-year-old Cerusico's age as 25.[3]

Selected filmography

References
  1. Lancia, Enrico (2003). "Cerusico, Enzo". Dizionario del cinema italiano. Gli artisti : Vol. 3, Gli attori dal 1930 ai giorni nostri: A - L (in Italian). Gremese Editore. p. 139. ISBN 978-88-8440-213-4.
  2. "E' morto l'attore Enzo Cerusico". La Repubblica (in Italian). 28 November 1991. Retrieved 25 May 2023.
  3. Goodwin, Fritz. (1969, 31 May – 6 June). The operation was a failure ... but the patient survived. TV Guide.
  4. Brooks, Tim; Marsh, Earl (29 June 2009). The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV Shows. New York: Ballantine Books. p. 941. ISBN 978-0307483201.
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