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Biography: Eduardo Ciannelli

Italian-born actor Eduardo Ciannelli was mostly known for his sinister gangster roles, but he first rose to fame as an opera singer and musical comedy star! The son of a doctor who operated a health spa, Ciannelli was expected to follow his father's footsteps into the medical profession, and to that end studied at the University of Naples. Launching his career in grand opera as a baritone, Ciannelli came to the U.S. after World War I, where he was headlined in such Broadway productions as Rose Marie and Lady Billy. He switched to straight acting with the Theatre Guild in the late 1920s, co-starring with luminaries like the Lunts and Katherine Cornell. Cianelli's resemblance to racketeer Lucky Luciano led to his being cast as the eloquent but deadly gangster Trock Estrella in Maxwell Anderson's Winterset, the role that brought him to Hollywood on a permanent basis (after a couple of false starts) in 1936. He followed up the film version of Winterset with a Luciano-like role in the Bette Davis vehicle Marked Women (1937), then did his best to avoid being typed as a gangster. After inducing goosebumps in Gunga Din (1939) as the evil Indian cult leader ("Kill for the love of Kali!"), Ciannelli did an about-face as the lovable, effusive Italian speakeasy owner in Kitty Foyle (1940)--and was nominated for an Oscar in the process. During the war, the actor billed himself briefly as Edward Ciannelli, and in this "guise" brought a measure of dignity to his title role in the Republic serial The Mysterious Dr. Satan (1945). He returned to Italy in the 1950s to appear in European films and stage productions, occasionally popping up in Hollywood films as ageing Mafia bosses and self-made millionaires. In 1959, he was seen regularly as a nightclub owner on the TV detective series Johnny Staccato. Had he lived, Eduardo Ciannelli would have been ideal for the starring role in 1972's The Godfather, as he proved in a similar assignment in the 1968 Mafia drama The Brotherhood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide less

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Movies (30)
TV (1)
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Houseboat (1958)
Cast: Cary Grant Sophia Loren Werner Klemperer Martha Hyer Eduardo Ciannelli Kathleen Freeman
Tags: Romantic Comedy Comedy Romance Domestic Comedy
Length: 110min
Cary Grant scored still another box-office smash with his 1958 vehicle Houseboat. Grant plays a widowed father who packs himself and his spoiled kiddies off to a ramshackle houseboat. Enter Sophia Loren, who is attempting to break loose from her...
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Love Slaves of the Amazons (1957)
Cast: Don Taylor
Tags: Adventure Fantasy
Length: 81min
You knew what you were in for when you saw the title, so don't grouse. Don Taylor stars as a doctor/adventurer who ventures into the South America jungle with explorer Eduardo Cianelli. Taylor and Cianelli stumble upon a race of green-skinned Amazon...
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The Stranger's Hand (1954)
Cast: Alida Valli Nino Rota Trevor Howard
Tags: Action Thriller Spy Film Action Drama
Length: 86min
This mystery is adapted from a Graham Greene novel and begins as a British spy arranges a meeting with his son, whom he hasn't seen in four years. They are to meet in Venice, but unfortunately, the spy is unable to make the appointment. The boy then...
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The People Against O'Hara (1951)
Cast: Spencer Tracy Pat O'Brien
Tags: Courtroom Drama Drama Mystery Crime
Length: 101min
Fish-market worker Johnny O'Hara (James Arness) is named as a suspect when his boss -- with whom he had a dispute the previous day -- is shot to death in an apparent robbery. When he's arrested, his family appeals to their old friend James Curtayne...
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Seven Keys to Baldpate (1947)
Cast: Margaret Lindsay
Tags: Thriller Psychological Thriller Mystery
Length: 68min
In this fifth film version of the play by George M. Cohan and Earl Derr Biggers, Phillip Terry portrays a mystery novelist who wagers that he can write a complete story in one night. To this end, he arranges to sequester himself in a remote rustic...
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Fugitive Lady (1950)
Cast: Binnie Barnes
Tags: Crime Mystery Crime Thriller Detective Film
Length: 78min
Janis Paige stars as Fugitive Lady Barbara Clementi in this internationally produced melodrama. When Italian millionaire Ralph Clementi (Eduardo Cianelli) dies mysteriously, suspicion falls upon Clementi's admittedly mercenary American wife Barbara....
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The Creeper (1948)
Tags: Horror
Length: 65min
When Universal went briefly out of the "B" horror film business in 1946, the studio sold two of its productions to other studios. The Brute Man went to PRC, while The Creeper was shipped off to 20th Century-Fox, where it lay on the shelf for nearly...
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Volcano (1950)
Cast: Rossano Brazzi Anna Magnani
Tags: Adventure Drama Adventure Drama
Length: 106min
Released in Italy in 1950, Volcano didn't receive widespread American distribution until it was picked up by United Artists in 1953. The film is a standard "smoldering passions" yarn, with the ubiquitous Anna Magnani in the lead. In accordance with...
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The Lost Moment (1947)
Cast: Susan Hayward Robert Cummings Agnes Moorehead
Tags: Docudrama Drama
Length: 89min
It is said that Henry James' The Aspern Papers were inspired by the romance between Lord Byron and his mistress Claire Claremont, who in her dotage jealously guarded the poems written by Byron in her honor. In the film version of James' novel, The...
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The Wife of Monte Cristo (1946)
Cast: Edgar G. Ulmer
Tags: Historical Film Drama Adventure Adventure Drama
Length: 80min
Alexandre Dumas' famous fictional count gets revenge in this lively sequel to the original story. The Monte Cristo count begins by returning to Paris under an assumed name. There he helps the beleaguered poor who most suffered from the early...
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Biography: Eduardo Ciannelli

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