This actor is well known, mainly, to the older generation of viewers who watched the Italian television series Octopus on Soviet television, which tells about the struggle of police commissioner Corrado Cattani with the Sicilian mafia. In the Soviet Union, both the character and the actor playing this role, Michele Placido, were known to everyone. He was certainly a cult figure.
How it all began
Michele Placido was born in the small town of Ascol-Satriano on May 19, 1946. He studied at a school at a Catholic monastery. Very little is known about the childhood and youthful years of the future actor, he did not immediately come to a professional career. After serving in the army, Michele had the opportunity to work in the police of Rome. And this fact of the biography in the future helped him a lot in working on the main role in his cinematic career. The young policeman became interested in theater and cinema, which led to the admission to the Academy of Dramatic Art. His first role in the Roman scene dates from 1969. According to the actor himself, at this stage of his life he hardly thought about working in a big movie.
In the cinema
Michele Placido, whose filmography often remains in the shadow of his famous star role, came to her already an established master. By 1984, when the first season of “Octopus” appeared on television screens in several European countries, he already managed to play a significant number of roles in outstanding paintings with brilliance. Here are just some of the films featuring Michele Placido - the comedy "Folk Romance" by Mario Monicelli, "The Divine Creation" by Luigi Commencini, "Ernesto" Salvatore Sampery, "Three Brothers" by Francesco Rosi, "Communication Through a Pizzeria" by Damiano Damiani. On their example, one can trace how the skill of the actor grew from role to role. Films featuring Michele Placido enjoyed continued success with the public and the favorable attention of critics. To the role that made him famous, the actor approached at the age of thirty-eight years. He himself was used to treating the image of Commissioner Cattani with a slight irony and was not at all inclined to consider this work the pinnacle of his work in the cinema.
"Octopus"
But no matter how ironic Michele Placido is over his hero, this image turned out to be more than just significant. The hero, often left completely alone, fights against death with many times superior evil forces. In this battle, he suffers heavy losses, almost everyone who was dear to him is killed. Corrado Cattani himself cannot but understand his doom in this war. But he, like kamikaze, already has no other choice but to go to ram. And the almost impossible happens - a lone hero could, if not overwhelm, then seriously shake the centuries-old power of the Italian mafia. Which with good reason considered itself immortal and invincible. But Commissioner Cattani, burned down in the fight against the mafia, managed to raise other fighters to continue the war with the evil. They replaced him and continued the work of the deceased hero. And what is most surprising - they won. The invincible mafia was, if not completely defeated, then seriously wounded.
Historical Background
The great success of the television series "Octopus" is not least due to the fact that the events depicted in it overlapped with the realities of Italian life. And the mafia in Italy is far from a cinematic phenomenon. Everything that the viewer saw on the screen took place in reality, not far away, sometimes outside the window. The mafia controlled and determined the life of a significant part of Italian society. Its influence was pervaded by the whole society - from the very bottom to the top of the social hierarchy. And if you don’t fixate on minor historical inconsistencies, then everything happened as in the series. Mafia leaders are either destroyed or live out their days in prison for life imprisonment. Which, however, does not mean a complete victory over evil. And in the Soviet Union, this film was also loved because the viewer could not help but project Italian realities onto Soviet ones, and paradoxically found many intersections in them.
The death of Commissioner Cattani
Michele Placido, whose filmography had a chance to end at an endless point called Octopus, did not want such a fate for himself. Commissioner Cattani could theoretically fight evil for several decades before reaching a well-deserved old-age pension. But Corrado dies from machine gun bursts in the fourth season finale, unarmed in an ambush. It was the choice of the actor himself, he dictated the decision to the scriptwriters. And it should be noted that this was the right choice - an endless repetition of plot moves and situations would only mean the destruction of the created image. A little more - and he would have turned into a parody of himself. Therefore, the mortal war with the mafia was continued by friends and associates of Corrado Cattani. And the actor Michele Placido preferred to continue his creative career with other works. Both in the cinema and on the stage.
After the Octopus
It was at that time, when the series “Octopus” was shown with tremendous success in the Soviet Union, where the main character was performed by Mikeli Placido, the biography of the actor continued in exactly the opposite way. In the movie Damiano Damiani "Communication through the pizzeria," he played the characteristic role of the mafia and the hired killer. And it turned out that the actor is no less brilliant. And since the nineties, Michele Placido declares himself as a film director. Among his most noteworthy works are films such as “Pummaro”, “Blood Friends”, “Petty Bourgeois Hero”. He does not leave the theater scene, where he plays King Lear - the complex role of Shakespeare's repertoire. And there is every reason to believe that Michele Placido will more than once please her fans with new unexpected works in cinema and theater. At the same time, the artist himself, stating his priorities, says that he would prefer to choose a theater stage and directorial work in the cinema. But he is not ready to completely abandon interesting acting offers in the field of cinema.
"Afghan break"
The career of the actor after “Octopus” sometimes had very unexpected turns. Michele Placido, whose films enjoyed constant success throughout the entire Soviet Union, could not but accept the invitation to play the main role in the film by the Soviet director Vladimir Bortko "Afghan Break". And it remains only to regret that this film remained almost unnoticed and not appreciated. The role of the Russian major paratrooper Mikhail Bandura has become one of the peaks in the work of the Italian actor. This film was shot in very difficult political conditions, in an environment as close to combat as possible. The Soviet Union in 1991 experienced a period of catastrophic collapse. And by coincidence of historical circumstances at this time, many were simply not up to the movies. Even for such an extraordinary one, where the famous actor Michele Placido, through the image of a Russian officer, showed the world the truth about a man in a meaningless and bloody Afghan war. Major Bandura fights on her, performing her duties as an officer, but cannot consider this war her. The hero Michele Placido dies, like Commissioner Corrado Cattani, from a machine gun. He accepts his fate with the same doom.
Case at the Afghan border
The biography of Michele Placido will be incomplete, if you do not mention one, it would seem, a completely random, but very expressive episode. In the area where the "Afghan Kink" was filmed, an ethnic armed conflict erupted between the Uzbek and Tajik armed groups. And once the film crew, returning to base, was ambushed and was surrounded by armed people. It could end very badly. But the situation was helped to resolve by the commissar of the Italian police Corrado Cattani, who suddenly appeared from the hatch of the Soviet armored personnel carrier. Respect for this hero allowed the incident to be considered exhausted, and everyone went their own way. Michele Placido himself recalls with great warmth both his visit to the Soviet Union and his participation in the film "Afghan Break." Subsequently, the actor often visited Russia. In particular, he participated in the Moscow Film Festival.
Michele Placido: artist's personal life
Stars of this level have a different attitude to the yellow press and its attention to their personal lives. Some of them love to provoke attention to their person and everything that happens around her. Michele Placido is not one of them and does not like to put his personal life on public display. Therefore, we restrict ourselves to a simple statement of facts. The artist is married for the third time, his wife is actress Federica Vicenti. His second wife was actress Simonetta Stefanelli. Michele Placido has five children.