Biography of Luigi Lo Cascio

(Palermo, 1967)

Lo Cascio attended the "Silvio D'Amico" Academy of Dramatic Arts in Rome, gaining his diploma with a dissertation on "Hamlet", directed by Orazio Costa. After parts in two classics directed by Giuseppe Patroni Griffi ("Margherita Gautier" and "Romeo and Juliet") and coming to the fore in "Waiting for Godot" staged by Federico Tiezzi, his career really took off. Within the space of a few years, he worked under directors of the ilk of Carlo Quartucci ("Ager Sanguinis"), Elio De Capitani ("La sposa di Messina"), Roberto Guicciardini ("La morte di Empedocle", "La figlia dell'aria", "Il figlio di Pulcinella") and Carlo Cecchi, in two remarkable stage productions of "Hamlet" and "A midsummer night's dream". Notwithstanding these achievements, Lo Cascio gave little thought to pursuing a career in film, believing himself unsuited to the medium. But fortune was to smile upon him: after a long series of screen tests to find the right actor to play Peppino Impastato, the courageous anti-mafia activist killed by Cosa Nostra in 1978, Luigi Maria Burruano – already cast in the role of the protagonist's father and member of the honourable society, a role in which he excelled – advised Marco Tullio Giordana to meet his nephew, a talented young stage actor. Suitably impressed, the director gave Lo Cascio the part, a decision he was not to regret: the critical and box office success of "The hundred steps (I cento passi)" (2000) was unquestionably due in part to the brilliant Lo Cascio and this, his first big screen appearance, was rewarded with a David di Donatello award. And while the subsequent "Light of my eyes (Luce dei miei occhi)" (2001) by Giuseppe Piccioni proved unresolved and pretentious, Lo Cascio's performance was nonetheless excellent once again and he won the Volpi Cup at the Venice film festival. After that, he again revealed his range in "The best day of my life (Il più bel giorno della mia vita)" (2002) directed by Cristina Comencini, giving a sensitive portrait of a homosexual lawyer, and in the saga "The best of youth (La meglio gioventù)" (2003) by Marco Tullio Giordana, in which he was cast as one of the two brothers around whom the film revolves: he went on to give solid performances in the part of an angst-ridden policeman in the superb thriller by Eros Puglielli "Occhi di cristallo" (2004).