Piero Lulli

Biography

Piero Lulli (1923-1991) was an Italian film actor best known for his work in peplum, adventure films and the European western of the 1960s and 1970s. Active from 1942 to 1977, he became one of the most prolific supporting performers in Italian cinema.

The younger brother of actor Folco Lulli, he began working during the Second World War in films such as A Pilot Returns (1942) and Love Story (1942). After the war he moved between drama and thrillers, appearing in Tragic Hunt (1947) and Anna (1951). He then turned to the cycle of Roman and mythological epics, where his physical presence secured him a steady place in many productions, including Ulysses (1954), in which he played Achilles. By the second half of the sixties he had joined the European western, working in dozens of low-budget features.

He stayed busy through the 1970s with titles such as My Name is Nobody (1973), where he plays a sheriff, and Nazi Love Camp 27 (1977), the last entry in the filmography listed in the sources. Today his name is mostly linked to the popular phase of the Italian western rather than to its best-known directors.

Key films

• Tragic Hunt (1947): plays a driver in this postwar thriller.
• Anna (1951): plays Dr. Manzi in a period drama.
• Ulysses (1954): plays Achilles in one of his best-known mythological films.
• My Name is Nobody (1973): appears as a sheriff in this 1970s comic western.