Back in the day, flesh fiends of the world and global movie goers waited with mastur(bated) breath for Massimo Girotti to shed his threads on screen. In his youth, the ruggedly handsome Italian had a fit physique due to hours spent swimming and playing polo. Boasting beauty, brawn and brains, Massimo traded in his engineering studies to become an actor. In addition to showing his skin in sword-and-sandal flicks (Herod the Great, Romolo e Remo, Sins of Rome), the hottie revealed his range in Italian neo-realism films (The Tragic Hunt, In the Name of the Law); dramas (Desire, Difficult Years, The Gates of Heaven); and comedies (Dora Nelson, The Street Has Many Dreams). Massimo closed out the 1960s with a pair of Pier Paolo Pasolini pictures — appearing alongside Maria Callas in Medea (1969) and Terrence Stamp in Teorema (1968). Also known as Theorem, the latter film showcases Mr. Girotti’s middle-aged body as he strips in a train station. Nice caboose! Later, the nude dude goes full frontal in a barren landscape. This desert is our dessert! Through the years, Massimo starred in Roberto Rossellini’s war drama A Pilot Returns (1942) and popped up in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972). In between, he could be seen in Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione (1943) with Clara Calamai, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Story of a Love Affair (1950) with Lucia Bosé, and two cinematic adaptations of the novel “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1934). The postman? After watching macho Massimo, audience members came twice too. Grazie!
