Vittorio Gassman Knight Grand Cross OMRI (born Gassmann; 1 September 1922 – 29 June 2000), popularly known as Il Mattatore, was an Italian theatre and film actor and director. He is considered one of the greatest Italian actors and is commonly recalled as an extremely professional, versatile, magnetic interpreter, whose long career includes both important productions as well as dozens of divertissements (which made him greatly popular). He was born in Genoa to a German father, Heinrich Gassmann, and a Pisan Jewish mother, Luisa Ambron. While still very young he moved to Rome, where he attended the studies at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica. Gassman's debut was in Milan, in 1942, with Alda Borelli in Niccodemi's Nemica (theatre), he then moved to Rome and the Teatro Eliseo joining Tino Carraro and Ernesto Calindri in a team that remained famous; with them he acted in a range of plays from bourgeois comedy to the sophisticated intellectual theatre. In 1946, he made his film debut in Preludio d'amore, the year after he appeared in five films. In 1948 he played in Riso amaro.