Roberto Roberti

Biography

Torella dei Lombardi, a hillside village in Campania, greeted its most restless son on 5 August 1879. Within four decades Roberto Roberti had traded the quiet stone streets for flickering studio arc-lights, steering silent dramas such as Meteora, Passa l’amore and Tenebre through 1916’s whirlwind year. Between calls of “Action!” he stepped in front of the lens himself, adding actor to his résumé. Off-set he shared his life with actress-writer Bice Valerian. After four decades away, the prodigal storyteller returned home, closing his final scene in the same house where his first cry had sounded, on 9 January 1959.