With a name that sounds like he's cut out to be a Bond villain, Ivan Rassimov was a one of a kind character actor. Ivan was actually a born and raised native of Italy and after doing a hitch in the military, he set his sights on becoming an actor. It was in the mid 60s that this stacked stud with his piercing blue eyes started getting plenty of work in what would more or less be called "early exploitation" films and he never looked back. His first really big project was in the 1965 sci-fi flick Planet of the Vampires, which he then followed with roles in The Witch (1966), Cjamango (1967), Don't Wait, Django... Shoot! (1967), and If You Want to Live... Shoot! (1968). Since he became a big name in the "spaghetti westerns" of the lates 60's, he adopted a more "Americana" name for marketability as "Sean Todd". Then by the early 70s, dropped that alias and owned his Serbian roots as Ivan Rassimov, and that's when the villain roles started pouring in. He then was regularly cast as Nazis, tough guys, western heavies, and periodically a rugged jawlined prince or king, which is where he comes our way as Prince Sanit in 1976's Emanuelle in Bangkok. Ivan drops his pants, gives us a tasty look at his Italian derriere while him and the titular lady swap massages on a shag rug. Unfortunately, Ivan quit acting in the late 80s, and then 15 years later he passed away in his home in Rome, but he left a sexy and memorable stamp on film history, especially for his Italian classics!
