Italian actor and director, Carlo Pedersoli, known as Bud Spencer, died today at the age of 86. Born in Naples, he grew from a successful swimmer in his youth before he got a degree in law, and has registered several patents. Spencer also became a certified commercial airline and helicopter pilot, and supported and funded many children’s charities, including the Spencer Scholarship Fund.
Spencer’s first movie role was in Quel fantasma di mio marito, an Italian comedy shot in 1949 and released in 1950. Then he played a member of the Praetorian Guard in Quo Vadis, a film shot in Italy, in 1951. During the 1950s and part of the 1960s, Spencer appeared in some Italian films but “his career was strictly minor league until the late 1960s.”
Known as “Il Gigante Buono”, Spencer met his future film partner, Terence Hill, on the set of Hannibal in 1959. They went on to work together on over 20 films, including (named using their most common U.S. titles).
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