Life and career

Placido was born at Ascoli Satriano into a poor family from Rionero in Vulture, Basilicata; he is a descendant of the known brigand Carmine Crocco. Placido had a number of jobs since his youth. He studied acting at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, and with Silvio D'Amico at the Academy of Dramatic Arts. He made his debut as an actor in the play Midsummer's Night Dream in 1969. Two years later he started film work under directors such as Luigi Comencini, Mario Monicelli, Salvatore Samperi, Damiano Damiani, Francesco Rosi, Walerian Borowczyk, Marco Bellocchio, Paolo Cavara and Carlo Lizzani. His first success came with the role of soldier Paolo Passeri in Marcia trionfale (1976, directed by Bellocchio), for which he won a David di Donatello. Two years later he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor award at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival for his role of the homosexual worker in ironical melodrama Ernesto (1978, by Samperi).

He appeared in several TV movies in the 1970s, but 1983 marked the beginning of his greatest television popularity when he played the lead as a police inspector investigating the Mafia in Damiano Damiani's TV series La Piovra. He went on to play the same part in the subsequent three series, until his character's assassination. Afterwards he would appear as a law enforcement official in a number of other films and TV productions dealing with organized crime, including a semi-biographical movie about Giovanni Falcone, where he acted as the titular judge. In 2008, in a reversal of roles, he portrayed longtime Mafia boss Bernardo Provenzano in the TV movie L'ultimo padrino. A recognizable role to US audiences is that of an Italian businessman in the 1988 comedy Big Business.

Until a divorce in 1994, he was married to actress Simonetta Stefanelli, who is best known for having played Michael Corleone's first (Sicilian) wife in The Godfather. Their daughter Violante Placido is also an actress.

Since 2012 he has been married to actress Federica Vincenti (b. 8 November 1983) after over 10 years of dating each other

Filmography

Actor

• Teresa the Thief (1972, Carlo Di Palma) … Tonino Santità
• Il caso Pisciotta (1972, Eriprando Visconti) … Amerigo Lo Jacono
• Il Picciotto (1973, TV film, Alberto Negrin) … Rosario Mandalà
• The Black Hand (The Birth of the Mafia) (1973, Antonio Racioppi) … Antonio Turris
• Mia moglie, un corpo per l'amore (1973, Mario Imperoli)
• Till Marriage Do Us Part (1974, Luigi Comencini) … Silvano Pennacchini
• Processo per direttissima (1974, Lucio De Caro) … Stefano Baldini
• Come Home and Meet My Wife (1974, Mario Monicelli) … Giovanni Pizzullo
• Scandal in the Family (1975, Bruno Gaburro) … Milo
• Moses the Lawgiver (1975, TV miniseries, Gianfranco De Bosio) … Caleb
• Orlando Furioso (1975, TV miniseries, Luca Ronconi) … Agramante
• And Agnes Chose to Die (1976, Giuliano Montaldo) … Tom
• Plot of Fear (1976, Paolo Cavara) … Inspector Gaspare Lomenzo
• La Orca (1976, Eriprando Visconti) … Michele
• The Divine Nymph (1976, Giuseppe Patroni Griffi) … Martino Ghiondelli
• Marcia trionfale (1976, Marco Bellocchio) … Paolo Passeri
• Corleone (1977, Pasquale Squitieri) … Michele Labruzzo
• Oedipus Orca (1977, Eriprando Visconti) … Michele
• Fontamara (1977, Carlo Lizzani) … Berardo Viola
• Kleinhoff Hotel (1977, Carlo Lizzani) … Pedro
• The Pajama Girl Case (1977, Flavio Mogherini) … Antonio Attolini
• Beach House (1977, Sergio Citti) … Vincenzino
• A Man on His Knees (1978, Damiano Damiani) … Platamona
• Io sono mia (1978, Sofia Scandurra) … Giacinto
• Tigers in Lipstick (1979, Luigi Zampa) … Angelo / The Photographer
• The Meadow (1979, Paolo and Vittorio Taviani) … Enzo
• Saturday, Sunday and Friday (1979, 3 directors) … Mario Salvetti
• Ernesto (1979, Salvatore Samperi) … The Man
• A Leap in the Dark (1980, Marco Bellocchio) … Giovanni Sciabola
• Lulu (1980, Walerian Borowczyk) … Schwarz
• Cargo (1981, Serge Dubor) … Giovanni
• Three Brothers (1981, Francesco Rosi) … Nicola Giuranna
• The Wings of the Dove (1981, Benoît Jacquot) … Sandro
• Sciopèn (1982, Luciano Odorisio) … Francesco Maria Vitale
• Ars amandi (1983, Walerian Borowczyk) … Macarius
• Les Amants terribles (1984, Danièle Dubroux and Stavros Kaplanidis) … Sergio
• La Piovra (1984, TV miniseries, Damiano Damiani) … Commissario Corrado Cattani
• La piovra 2 (it) (1985, TV miniseries, Florestano Vancini) … Commissario Corrado Cattani
• Pizza Connection (1985, Damiano Damiani) … Mario Aloia
• Grandi magazzini (1986, Castellano & Pipolo) … Director
• Summer Night (1986, Lina Wertmüller) … Beppe Catanìa
• La piovra 3 (it) (1987, TV miniseries, Luigi Perelli) … Commissario Corrado Cattani
• Private Affairs (1987, Francesco Massaro) … Lionello
• Via Paradiso (1988, Luciano Odorisio) … Francesco
• Big Business (1988, Jim Abrahams) … Fabio Alberici
• Come sono buoni i bianchi (1988, Marco Ferreri) … Michele
• La piovra 4 (it) (1989, TV miniseries, Luigi Perelli) … Commissario Corrado Cattani
• Mery per sempre (1989, Marco Risi) … Marco Terzi
• Afganskiy izlom (1990, Vladimir Bortko) … Major Bandura
• Scoop (1991, TV miniseries, José María Sánchez) … Marco Bonilli
• Close Friends (1992, Michele Placido) … father of Simona
• Uomo di rispetto (1992, TV film, Damiano Damiani) … Nino
• Drug Wars: The Cocaine Cartel (1992, TV miniseries, Paul Krasny) … Col. Roberto Chavez
• Quattro bravi ragazzi (1993, Claudio Camarca) … Marcione
• Father and Son (1994, Pasquale Pozzessere) … Corrado
• Policemen (1994, Giulio Base) … Sante Carella
• Lamerica (1994, Gianni Amelio) … Fiore
• Un eroe borghese (1995, Michele Placido) … Silvio Novembre
• La Lupa (1996, Gabriele Lavia) … Malerba
• Racket (1997, TV miniseries, Luigi Perelli) … Guido Gerosa
• Of Lost Love (1998, Michele Placido) … Don Gerardo
• La Missione (1998, TV film, Maurizio Zaccaro) … Padre Ramboni
• Le Plaisir (et ses petits tracas) (fr) (1998, Nicolas Boukhrief) … Carlo
• Terra bruciata (1999, Fabio Segatori) … Fra' Salvatore
• A Respectable Man (1999, Maurizio Zaccaro) … Enzo Tortora
• The Nanny (1999, Marco Bellocchio) … Belli Estate Patient
• Dirty Linen (1999, Mario Monicelli) … Furio Cimin
• Padre Pio - Tra cielo e terra (2000, TV film)
• Free the Fish (2000)
• Tra due mondi (2001)
• Searching for Paradise (2002)
• Il Sequestro Soffiantini (2002, TV film)
• Soraya (2003, TV film)
• Un papà quasi perfetto (2003, TV miniseries)
• Il posto dell'anima (2003)
• Il Grande Torino (2004. TV film)
• The Smell of Blood (2004)
• Love Returns (2004)
• Estrenando sueños (2005)
• Liolà (2005)
• Commediasexi (2006)
• Karol: The Pope, The Man (2006, TV film)
• The Goodbye Kiss (2006)
• The Roses of the Desert (2006)
• The Unknown Woman (2006)
• 2061: An Exceptional Year (2007)
• Piano, solo (2007)
• SoloMetro (2007)
• Blood of the Losers (2008)
• Aldo Moro - Il presidente (2008, TV film))
• La luna nel deserto (2008, short) (voice)
• The Sorrow of Mrs. Schneider (2008)
• L'ultimo padrino (2008, TV film)
• Baarìa (2009)
• The Big Dream (2009)
• Oggi sposi (2009)
• Manuale d'amore 3 (2011)
• Tulpa (2012)
• The Choice (2015)
• Io che amo solo te (2015)

Director

• Pummarò (1990)
• Close Friends (1992)
• Un eroe borghese (1995)
• Of Lost Love (1998)
• Un Altro mondo è possibile (2001)
• A Journey Called Love (2002)
• Ovunque sei (2004)
• Romanzo criminale (2005)
• The Big Dream (2009)
• L'Aquila 2009 - Cinque registi tra le macerie (2009)
• Vallanzasca - Gli angeli del male (2010)
• Le Guetteur (2012)
• The Choice (2015)

[ Source: Wikipedia ]