George Eastman(I)
- Writer
- Actor
- Director
Born Luigi Montefiori in 1942 near Genoa, Italy, the future actor
provided artwork for various advertising agencies in Genoa before
moving to Rome in 1966. Though he intended to further his art career,
he became involved with a crowd of film people who urged him to put his
good looks to advantage in the movies. Parts in Italian westerns soon
followed, usually under the pseudonym "George Eastman". (He once
reportedly missed out on a role in a Franco Nero western because his height
made Franco Nero look too short.) Never quite "typed", the actor soon moved
into other film genres playing good guys, bad guys, and good-bad guys.
These parts often exploited his athletic physique by having him remove
his shirt, perhaps most memorably in Lina Wertmüller's _Belle Starr (1968)
where he suffered through a memorable torture scene involving a
boot-spur. However, a few parts in English-language films, such as
Charlton Heston's _Call of the Wild, The (1972)_ failed to significantly broaden his appeal. He also
began to write or collaborate on scripts and in 1989 he directed his
first movie: _DNA Formula Letale (1989)_. Details on his private life are sketchy but some
sources indicate that he's the father of a daughter.