Overview
Bud Spencer and Terence Hill biography.
Bud Spencer & Terence Hill
They are respectively by Carlo Pedersoli and Mario Girotti, they were a couple of Italian film actors, active from 1967 to 1985 and once again in 1994. They interpreted 18 films together, of which 16 as a leading couple. Several of their films have garnered sensational revenues and some have had sequels and epigones. Both were awarded the David di Donatello career award in 2010.
“We are the only film couple in the world who have never had a fight.” (Bud Spencer and Terence Hill)
The “red dune buggy with yellow hood” (hence the song Dune Buggy) Puma (Italian brand automobiles) contested in the movie “Watch Out, We’re Mad!”
Terence Hill and Bud Spencer in their latest film of a scene from the film Troublemakers (1994).
Bud Spencer
Carlo Pedersoli (31 October 1929 – 27 June 2016), known professionally as Bud Spencer, was an Italian actor, professional swimmer and water polo player. He was known for action-comedy and Spaghetti Western roles with his long-time film partner Terence Hill. The duo “garnered world acclaim and attracted millions to theater seats”. Spencer and Hill appeared in, produced and directed over 20 films together.
In 1967, film director Giuseppe Colizzi offered him a role in God Forgives… I Don’t!. On the set Pedersoli met Mario Girotti (Terence Hill). Although Pedersoli had met Girotti before on the set of Hannibal in 1959, this was the moment they went on to become a film duo. The film director asked the two actors to change their names, deeming them to be too Italian-sounding for a Western movie: Pedersoli chose Bud Spencer, with Bud inspired by Budweiser beer and Spencer by the actor Spencer Tracy.
While Hill’s characters were agile and youthful, Spencer always played the “phlegmatic, grumpy strong-arm man with a blessed, naive child’s laughter and a golden heart”. Overall, Hill and Spencer worked together on over 20 films, including (named using their most common U.S. titles) God Forgives… I Don’t! (1967), Ace High (1968), Boot Hill (1969), They Call Me Trinity (1970), Trinity Is Still My Name (1971), All the Way, Boys (1972), Watch Out, We’re Mad (1974), Two Missionaries (1974), Crime Busters (1977), Odds and Evens (1978), I’m For the Hippopotamus (1979), Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981), Go For It! (1983), Double Trouble (1984), Miami Supercops (1985) and Troublemakers (1994). Films with Spencer alone include The Five Man Army (1969), Even Angels Eat Beans (1973), The Fifth Day of Peace (1970), It Can Be Done Amigo (1972), Flatfoot (1973), Soldier of Fortune (1976), They Call Him Bulldozer (1978), The Sheriff and the Satellite Kid (1979), Everything Happens to Me (1980), Banana Joe (1982), Bomber (1982) and Superfantagenio (1986).
(Bud Spencer’s memorial statue in downtown Budapest)
(Bud Spencer, last years)
ATHLETE & SWIMMER CAREER:In his youth, Bud Spencer was a successful athlete and swimmer for the Gruppo Sportivo Fiamme Oro, (sport section of the Italian police force “Polizia di Stato”). He obtained a law degree and 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.
Pedersoli returned to Italy in 1949 to play water polo in Rome for Società Sportiva Lazio Nuoto and won the Italian swimming championships in freestyle and mixed relay teams. As a professional swimmer in his youth, Spencer was the first Italian to swim the 100 m freestyle in less than one minute when on 19 September 1950 he swam the distance in 59.5 s in Salsomaggiore. In 1949 he made his international debut and a year later he was called up for the European championships in Vienna where he swam in two finals, finishing fifth in the 100 m and fourth in the relay 4 × 200 m.
In the 1951 Mediterranean Games in Alexandria (Egypt), he won a silver medal in the same 100 m freestyle event. Pedersoli participated in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, reaching the semi-finals in the 100 m freestyle (58.8 s heats, 58.9 s semi final). Four years later, in Melbourne, he also entered the semi-finals in the same category (58.5 s heat, 59.0 s semi final).
As a water polo player, he won the Italian Championship in 1954 with S.S. Lazio and the gold medal at 1955 Mediterranean Games in Barcelona with the Italian national team. His swimming career ended abruptly in 1957.
On 17 January 2005, he was awarded the Caimano d’oro (Gold Caiman) by the Italian Swimming Federation. On 24 January 2007, he received swimming and water polo coach diplomas from the Italian Swimming Federation’s president Paolo Barelli.
Terence Hill
Terence Hill (born Mario Girotti, in the 29 March 1939) is an Italian actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer.
Hill started his career as a child actor and gained international fame for starring roles in action and comedy films, many with longtime film partner and friend Bud Spencer. During the height of his popularity Hill was among Italy’s highest-paid actors. Hill’s most widely seen films include comic and standard Westerns all´Italiana (“Italian-style Westerns”, colloquially called “Spaghetti Westerns”), some based on popular novels by German author Karl May about the American frontier.
Of these, the most famous are Lo chiamavano Trinità (They Call Me Trinity, 1970) and Il mio nome è Nessuno (My Name Is Nobody, 1973), co-starring Henry Fonda. His film Django, Prepare a Coffin, shot in 1968 by director Ferdinando Baldi, and co-starring Horst Frank and George Eastman, was featured at the 64th Venice Film Festival in 2007.
Hill, whose stage name was the product of a publicity stunt by film producers, also went on to a successful television career in Italy.
Girotti then appeared alongside Bud Spencer (then known as Carlo Pedersoli) in Giuseppe Colizzi’s Spaghetti Western God Forgives… I Don’t! (1967). At the time cast and crew in Westerns frequently adopted American names to give the film a better chance of selling in English speaking countries; Girotti changed his name to “Terence Hill”. He took “Hill” from his wife’s mother’s name and “Terence” from a book on Roman poets. The film was a huge hit – the most popular film of the year in Italy – and established him as a star.
(Terence Hill, nowadays)
Film
God For Trouble. I Don’t! (1967)
Ace High (1968)
Boot Hill (1969)
They Call Me Trinity (1970)
Trinity Is Still My Name (1971)
… All the Way, Boys! (1973)
Watch Out, We’re Mad! (1974)
Two Missionaries (1974)
Crime Busters (1977)
Odds and Evens (1978)
I’m for the Hippopotamus (1979)
Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981)
Go for It (1983)
Double Trouble (1984)
Miami Supercops (1985)
Troublemakers (1994)
NOT CANONICAL:
Hannibal (1959) “with their real names and in separate scenes”
Blackie the Pirate (1971) “Terence Hill as protagonist and Bud Spencer in a minor role”
(“Blackie the Pirate” film)
