Walter Chiari | |
|---|---|
 Chiari in 1964 | |
| Born | Walter Annicchiarico 8 March 1924 Verona, Kingdom of Italy |
| Died | 20 December 1991 (aged 67) Milan, Italy |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1946–1991 |
Walter Annicchiarico (8 March 1924 – 20 December 1991), known as Walter Chiari [ˈvalter ˈkjaːri], was an Italian stage and screen actor, mostly in comedy roles.
Walter Annicchiarico was born in Verona, Italy on 8 March 1924 to a family originally from Apulia. During World War II he joined the Decima Flottiglia MAS, and then the Wehrmacht. Chiari appeared in films such as The Little Hut (1957), Bonjour Tristesse (1958), Chimes at Midnight (1966), and The Valachi Papers (1972). He appeared opposite Anna Magnani in Luchino Visconti's film Bellissima (1951).
In 1951 Luchino Visconti offered him the role of the young lover, in Bellissima; he continued in the theater, in the musical comedy with Delia Scala in 1956 with Buonanotte Bettina and in 1958 with Il gufo e la gattina, and in 1960 with Sandra Mondaini, Ave Ninchi and Alberto Bonucci with Un mandarino per Teo, all by Garinei and Giovannini, but also in the prose theater, acting in 1961 in The Gay Life, in 1965 with Gianrico Tedeschi in the comedy Luv by Murray Schisgal and, in 1966, with Renato Rascel in La strana coppia by Neil Simon.
During the making of The Little Hut he met Ava Gardner (still married to Frank Sinatra but already estranged from him), and he started a relationship with the American superstar.
He starred in They're a Weird Mob (1966), the last of the Powell and Pressburger films, based on a popular Australian novel by John O'Grady. His then girlfriend, Italian singer and actress Alida Chelli, also appeared in the film; the two married in 1969, and had one son, television presenter Simone Annicchiarico, before their 1972 divorce. He also appeared in the Australian film Squeeze a Flower in 1970.
In 1970 he was arrested and jailed in Rome on suspicion of cocaine possession and trafficking. After his release and partial acquittal (he was deemed not guilty of the trafficking count and received a lenient sentence for the charge of drug possession for personal use) his career never recovered. The Italian state television was off-limits for him, and all he could aspire to were bit parts in low-key comedies and local television appearances, and on theatre.
Chiari died of a sudden heart attack in Milan, at home, on 21 December 1991. His gravestone bears the line he once mentioned to director Dino Risi as his favourite choice for an epitaph: "Don't worry, I'm merely catching up with sleep". His grave is in the Civico Mausoleo Palanti in the Cimitero Monumentale di Milano.[1]
