Tullio Carminati

Carminati was born into a Dalmatian Italian family in Zadar (in modern-day Croatia), then belonging to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.^[3]

After achieving his first successes on the theatrical scene with the companies of Ettore Paladini and Ermete Novelli, he had the opportunity to make his debut in the world of cinema, around 1914, thanks to his elegant and refined presence.^[4]

He took part in about thirty silent films before founding his own production house in the late 1910s.^[3]

 

In 1921 he obtained enough popularity, thanks to his interpretation in The Lady with the Camellias (from the novel of the same name by Alexandre Dumas) alongside Alda Borelli, to induce the diva Eleonora Duse to offer him the direction of her company.^[4][1]

He staged Duse's last performances, including The Lady from the Sea written by Henrik Ibsen and The Closed Door by Emilio Praga.

During the year 1924 he moved to Germany and two years later to the United States, where he continued his career with some success until 1940. During the United States period he made a single participation in an Italian-French production in 1934.^[4]

In America he participated in the 725 performances of the comedy Strictly Dishonorable, being acclaimed for his role as "Latin lover".^[4] In this period he also devoted himself to musical comedies, thus also performing as a singer. In 1932 he was Bruno Mahler in the world premiere of Jerome Kern's Music in the Air at Broadway's Alvin Theater, with Al Shean, Walter Slezak and Marjorie Main, reprising the role in the 1933 premiere at Broadway's 44th Street Theatre.

After the beginning of the hostilities of the Second World War he returned to Italy where he was active the most from that moment, although he continued to participate in French, Spanish and American productions.^[3]

His films of the latter period include l'Antigone (1946), directed by Luchino Visconti, and René Clair's Beauté du diable (1950).^[3]

In 1953 he starred as Saint Dominic in Joan of Arc at the Stake alongside Ingrid Bergman, Marcella Pobbe, Miriam Pirazzini, Agnese Dubbini, Giacinto Prandelli and Piero De Palma at the San Carlo Theater in Naples. In 1954 the oratorio was adapted into a movie directed by Roberto Rossellini.

He died in Rome on 26 February 1971.^[3]

• Roberta Ascarelli, CARMINATI, Tullio, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, vol. 34, Roma, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana, 1988.
• V. Bernardoni, Dizionario degli attori contemporanei, Milan.
• R. Simoni, Trent'anni di critica drammatica, Turin, 1951.
• N. Leonelli, Attori tragici, attori comici, Milan, 1940.
• Don Marzio, Tullio Carminati, uno che rientra nei ranghi, in Scenario, XII, 1943, pp. 247–249.

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tullio Carminati.

• Tullio Carminati at IMDb