Vittorio Gassman studied theatre in his youth and was quite a good basketball player. He debuted on stage in 1943 and soon felt home in all classical theatre works. Since 1946 he also worked at the movies and his first big role there was the criminal in Bitter Rice. This fixed him to his main parts: The ambigous gentleman inflicting pain and pleasure at the same time. He also participated in the Italian comedies and in American movies but the latter with only minor success. As a homage to his passion for the theatre he directed a cinema version of the play Kean: Genius or Scoundrel.
Father of Alessandro Gassman, with Juliette Mayniel in 1965. The standard joke on him was that he had such an interesting, flexible voice (and such an outstanding acting ability) that he could have made Yellow Pages entertaining. In mid-90s, a satirical show on Italy national TV gave him a 2 minutes space where he just "acted" few lines from the Yellow Pages. The segment was a success. Founded and ran for years one of the most select acting schools. Shares his birthday with actress Yvonne De Carlo. Became widely popular with Luchino Visconti's theater company, performing in important plays such as Tennessee Williams' "Un tram che si chiama desiderio" (A Streetcar Named Desire) or William Shakespeare's "Rosalinda". In his public appearances, he often criticized moderated cultural positions and gained some enemies in the world of art for his frank judgments. Studied acting at the Accademia Nazionale d'Arte Drammatica in Rome. Born to a father from a wealthy family of German origins and a mother from Pisa.