Anthony Steffen

About Anthony Steffen

Who is it?: Actor, Writer, Assistant Director
Birth Day: July 21, 1930
Birth Place:  Rome, Lazio, Italy, Italy
Died On: June 4, 2004(2004-06-04) (aged 73)\nRio de Janeiro, Brazil
Birth Sign: Leo
Occupation: Actor, screenwriter, film producer
Years active: 1953-1991

Anthony Steffen Net Worth

Anthony Steffen was born on July 21, 1930 in  Rome, Lazio, Italy, Italy, is Actor, Writer, Assistant Director. For Spaghetti Western aficionados, Saturday June 5th was a very sad day due to Anthony Steffen's passing. Born in Rome, on 21st July of 1930, at the Brazilian embassy, son of Formula 1 champion and then ambassador Manoel de Teffe; he was named Antonio Luiz and became the Baron de Teffe. The de Teffe family had a noble origin but during Second World War, teenage Antonio left home to join the partisans against the Nazis.His life in the film business started as studio messenger for Vittorio De Sica who was then directing Ladri di biciclette (1948) and years later Antonio starred in the critically acclaimed Gli sbandati (1955). Then he went into typical examples of popular Italian films of the late 50s such as sword and sandal epics, comedies, adventures and even great American movies like Robert Aldrich's Sodom and Gomorrah (1962), but it was with Spaghetti Westerns that renamed Anthony Steffen achieved worldwide stardom. His acting is often accused of being wooden, but in many ways is ideally suited to playing the steely-faced gunslinger synonymous with the gender. Steffen's most memorable role was in Django il bastardo (1969), which he also co-wrote, playing a phantom gunslinger returned from the grave to avenge his own death. This is the uncredited inspiration for Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter (1973).His others successes include well liked features as 7 dollari sul rosso (1966), Un treno per Durango (1968) (with Mark Damon), Killer Kid (1967) and many others. He was still enjoyable in other genres, especially thrillers as the successful La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba (1971), Al tropico del cancro (1972) or Sette scialli di seta gialla (1972), a good example of a giallo where he played a blind pianist - one of his roles he most liked, and Killer Fish (1979), with James Franciscus and Lee Majors. Steffen was a very reliable leading man and supporting actor and was among the elite of European cinema such as Federico Fellini, Sergio Leone, Riccardo Freda, Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, Luchino Visconti, Antonio Margheriti, Ennio Morricone, Roger Vadim, Carlo Ponti, Sophia Loren and many others.Elegant, educated and handsome, fluent in English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Italian, Steffen lived in international jet-set, but in the early 80s he moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, place he just adored, occasionally visiting his beloved Rome. Since 2002 he had been fighting a dreadful cancer. He died on July 5, 2004, in Rio de Janeiro. He left three sons: Manuel de Teffe, Luiz and Chiara. Besides De Sica's Sciuscià (1946), his favourite film was John Ford's My Darling Clementine (1946). Good taste until the end.
Anthony Steffen is a member of Actor

💰 Net worth: Under Review

Some Anthony Steffen images

Biography/Timeline

1962

Later and under the name Antonio de Teffé, he worked behind the scenes in several Italian productions in the early 50's and later acted in several movies, but never really achieving stardom. In 1962, he had a bit part in Sodom and Gomorrah. An early appearance of his was in the 1955 Gli Sbandati.

1965

From 1965 to 1975, the newly named Anthony Steffen achieved considerable fame in Europe, amassing cult status, starring in 27 Spaghetti Westerns. Considered to be an "Italian Clint Eastwood", he was sometimes unfairly criticized for being a stiff or wooden actor. Several of his movies were sizeable box office hits in Europe.

1969

Django the Bastard (aka Stranger's Gundown, 1969) a movie that was produced and written by Steffen, is considered to be an inspiration for Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter. In several of his movies, Steffen starred alongside other Spaghetti Western luminaries such as Gianni Garko, Peter Lee Lawrence, and william Berger. Outside of the Spaghetti western genre, Steffen also appeared in several Giallo movies including The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971). His roles and status diminished as the Spaghetti Western genre fell into decline. Amassing a considerable fortune from his career as an actor, Steffen embarked on a jet set lifestyle.

1980

Always considered a huge star in Brazil because of the Spaghetti Western popularity in the South American country, Steffen returned to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the decade of 1980, until dying of cancer in 2004. He has maintained cult-status among fans of Italian Cinema for being perhaps the most prolific Spaghetti Western Leading actor.