Alberto Collo and Emilio Ghione in Guglielmo Oberdan, il martire di Trieste (1915)
Italian postcard. Alberto Collo (right) and Emilio Ghione (left) in Guglielmo Oberdan, il martire di Trieste (Emilio Ghione 1915). Guglielmo Oberdan: "I admit and I swear to have come to Trieste with the exact scope of killing the infamous head of an infamous state. And now I happily challenge your tortures."
Alberto Collo (1883-1955) was an Italian film actor of mostly the silent cinema. In the 1910s and early 1920s he acted opposite the female stars of his times, such as Francesca Bertini, Hesperia, Maria and Diomira Jacobini and Italia Almirante Manzini. He also performed in war propaganda, historical films and strong men films.
Born in Piobesi Torinese on July 6th, 1883, Alberto Collo started first to act on stage, but as of 1907 he began to collaborate with the film production company Ambrosio Film, playing comic parts. Two years after he moved to Itala Film where he played transvestite parts (men playing women). Between 1912 and 1924, however, he became one of the protagonists of the Italian silent cinema, performing in over 70 films, first shorts and later on feature-length films, mostly produced by Cines, then Celio Film, a company affiliated with Cines, and lastly at the Fert company. He worked with such directors as Baldassarre Negroni, Mario Almirante, Guido Brignone and Augusto Genina, and actors such as Emilio Ghione, Oreste Bilancia, Francesca Bertini and Italia Almirante Manzini.
In the early 1910s Collo often formed a triangle in shorts directed by Baldassarre Negroni and with Francesca Bertini and Emilio Ghione co-acting, the latter mostly playing the bad guy. In Panne d’auto (Negroni 1912) flirtatious Kitty doesn’t know to choose between engineer Alberto and officer Pietro. Pietro tries to impress Kitty with a daredevil car race but Alberto pretends to have a breakdown with his car, so Kitty joins him for a picnic and he has time to propose. In Idolo infranto (Negroni 1913) he plays a sculptor dumped by his capricious, gold-digging model (Bertini), has gone poor and is almost put on the street. When she returns and pretends to be his statue, he sees her in a mirror laughing at him, so enraged he destroys ‘the statue’. In L’amazzone mascherata (Negroni 1914) Collo is unjustly sentenced because of the loss of secret documents, so his wife (Bertini) comes to rescue and, disguised as an amazon, she pursues the real culprit, a circus director (Ghione). While in 1915 Collo had a small part in the well-known Neapolitan drama Assunta Spina, starring Francesca Bertini and Gustavo Serena, he had the lead in the propagandistic period piece Oberdan/Guglielmo Oberdan, il martire di Trieste (Emilio Ghione 1915), about a 19th century Italian partisan who tried to kill the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph when the latter visited Trieste, but Oberdan was caught and hanged. Ghione himself played the Austrian governor of Trieste. As Italy was at war with Austria when the film came out, Oberdan was a huge success.
By the mid-1910s, Collo became a regular partner of Bertini’s rival Hesperia, whose films were directed by Negroni, her husband, as in La signora delle camelie (Negroni 1915), Il potere sovrano (Negroni 1916), La cuccagna (Negroni 1916). But Collo was also paired with Maria Jacobini, as in Come le foglie (Gennaro Righelli 1917), and even more with her sister Diomira Jacobini, as in L’isola della felicità (Luciano Doria 1921) and La storia di Clo-Clo (Doria 1923). In the early 1920s Collo played opposite Italia Almirante Manzini in various films, a.o. as her jealous ex-lover in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante 1921), a prince in La piccolo parrocchia (Almirante 1923), and as Count Giano in the Sem Benelli adaptation L’arzigogolo (Almirante 1924). He also played in period pieces, such as the title role in the historical drama Il povero fornaretto (Almirante 1923), and in the Maciste-films Maciste e il nipote d’America (Eleuterio Rodolfi 1924) and Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni (1926). At Fert, Collo played with a steady crew that included Oreste Bilancia and Pauline Polaire. When the film crisis hitted the Fert studios as well in the mid-1920s, Collo stopped film acting, and only sporadically returned between 1926 and 1939. In the post-war era Collo obtained a few film parts between 1951 and 1955 in films like Arrivano i nostri (1951) by Mario Mattoli. When in the mid-fifties he became, ill, pennyless and destitute, the radio programme Ciak of RAI raised a big campaign, resulting in 400.000 lire, and even the Italian President got involved to procure Collo the best hospital. Unfortunately he could not be saved, so Alberto Collo passed away on May 7th, 1955 in Turin, at the age of 71 years. According to IMDB, Alberto Collo played at least in some 128 film titles, but certainly in many more in his early career, uncredited.
Sources: IMDB; Italian Wikipedia; Aldo Bernardini/Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano.
Alberto Collo and Emilio Ghione in Guglielmo Oberdan, il martire di Trieste (1915)
Italian postcard. Alberto Collo (right) and Emilio Ghione (left) in Guglielmo Oberdan, il martire di Trieste (Emilio Ghione 1915). Guglielmo Oberdan: "I admit and I swear to have come to Trieste with the exact scope of killing the infamous head of an infamous state. And now I happily challenge your tortures."
Alberto Collo (1883-1955) was an Italian film actor of mostly the silent cinema. In the 1910s and early 1920s he acted opposite the female stars of his times, such as Francesca Bertini, Hesperia, Maria and Diomira Jacobini and Italia Almirante Manzini. He also performed in war propaganda, historical films and strong men films.
Born in Piobesi Torinese on July 6th, 1883, Alberto Collo started first to act on stage, but as of 1907 he began to collaborate with the film production company Ambrosio Film, playing comic parts. Two years after he moved to Itala Film where he played transvestite parts (men playing women). Between 1912 and 1924, however, he became one of the protagonists of the Italian silent cinema, performing in over 70 films, first shorts and later on feature-length films, mostly produced by Cines, then Celio Film, a company affiliated with Cines, and lastly at the Fert company. He worked with such directors as Baldassarre Negroni, Mario Almirante, Guido Brignone and Augusto Genina, and actors such as Emilio Ghione, Oreste Bilancia, Francesca Bertini and Italia Almirante Manzini.
In the early 1910s Collo often formed a triangle in shorts directed by Baldassarre Negroni and with Francesca Bertini and Emilio Ghione co-acting, the latter mostly playing the bad guy. In Panne d’auto (Negroni 1912) flirtatious Kitty doesn’t know to choose between engineer Alberto and officer Pietro. Pietro tries to impress Kitty with a daredevil car race but Alberto pretends to have a breakdown with his car, so Kitty joins him for a picnic and he has time to propose. In Idolo infranto (Negroni 1913) he plays a sculptor dumped by his capricious, gold-digging model (Bertini), has gone poor and is almost put on the street. When she returns and pretends to be his statue, he sees her in a mirror laughing at him, so enraged he destroys ‘the statue’. In L’amazzone mascherata (Negroni 1914) Collo is unjustly sentenced because of the loss of secret documents, so his wife (Bertini) comes to rescue and, disguised as an amazon, she pursues the real culprit, a circus director (Ghione). While in 1915 Collo had a small part in the well-known Neapolitan drama Assunta Spina, starring Francesca Bertini and Gustavo Serena, he had the lead in the propagandistic period piece Oberdan/Guglielmo Oberdan, il martire di Trieste (Emilio Ghione 1915), about a 19th century Italian partisan who tried to kill the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph when the latter visited Trieste, but Oberdan was caught and hanged. Ghione himself played the Austrian governor of Trieste. As Italy was at war with Austria when the film came out, Oberdan was a huge success.
By the mid-1910s, Collo became a regular partner of Bertini’s rival Hesperia, whose films were directed by Negroni, her husband, as in La signora delle camelie (Negroni 1915), Il potere sovrano (Negroni 1916), La cuccagna (Negroni 1916). But Collo was also paired with Maria Jacobini, as in Come le foglie (Gennaro Righelli 1917), and even more with her sister Diomira Jacobini, as in L’isola della felicità (Luciano Doria 1921) and La storia di Clo-Clo (Doria 1923). In the early 1920s Collo played opposite Italia Almirante Manzini in various films, a.o. as her jealous ex-lover in La statua di carne (Mario Almirante 1921), a prince in La piccolo parrocchia (Almirante 1923), and as Count Giano in the Sem Benelli adaptation L’arzigogolo (Almirante 1924). He also played in period pieces, such as the title role in the historical drama Il povero fornaretto (Almirante 1923), and in the Maciste-films Maciste e il nipote d’America (Eleuterio Rodolfi 1924) and Maciste nella gabbia dei leoni (1926). At Fert, Collo played with a steady crew that included Oreste Bilancia and Pauline Polaire. When the film crisis hitted the Fert studios as well in the mid-1920s, Collo stopped film acting, and only sporadically returned between 1926 and 1939. In the post-war era Collo obtained a few film parts between 1951 and 1955 in films like Arrivano i nostri (1951) by Mario Mattoli. When in the mid-fifties he became, ill, pennyless and destitute, the radio programme Ciak of RAI raised a big campaign, resulting in 400.000 lire, and even the Italian President got involved to procure Collo the best hospital. Unfortunately he could not be saved, so Alberto Collo passed away on May 7th, 1955 in Turin, at the age of 71 years. According to IMDB, Alberto Collo played at least in some 128 film titles, but certainly in many more in his early career, uncredited.
Sources: IMDB; Italian Wikipedia; Aldo Bernardini/Vittorio Martinelli, Il cinema muto italiano.