With Bud Spencer he formed a successful film duo in Western parodies for many years. Even big fans should only know the actor Mario Girotti under his stage name.
His blue eyes are his trademark. For many years he rode on the road to success together with Bud Spencer in numerous films. Even today, the duo brings together up to 4,000 international fans every year.
At the “Bud Spencer and Terence Hill Festival”, for example, they indulge in the old days of the 70s and enjoy the legendary films and soundtracks. At the beginning of the year, however, Terence Hill announced that he was retiring from the film business. Family would come first now. Today he celebrates his 83rd birthday.
A life between Italy and Germany
The actor was born Mario Girotti in Venice in 1939. His mother came from Dresden, his father from the Italian region of Umbria. In the early 1940s, the family moved to Dresden to enable Hill’s father to work as a chemist at Schering AG. Terence Hill and his two brothers witnessed the city’s heavy bombing. The family narrowly escaped death.
For the first six years of his life, he only spoke German, which is why he describes the language as his mother tongue. The family returned to Italy, where Hill finished school, taking acting classes and studying literature.
Bud Spencer wanted and found
He had his first appearances in front of the camera at the age of 12, followed in 1959 with “Hannibal”, the first film in which his future film colleague Bud Spencer also took part. The two didn’t just meet on the film set. They already celebrated great successes in their youth when they collected numerous medals and championships in swimming.
For the film “God Forgives… Django Never!” both took on their meanwhile well-known stage names. Bud Spencer, whose real name was Carlo Pedersoli, and Terence Hill had been known by those names since 1967. The film is considered the birth of the duo. Together, Hill and Spencer developed into a great duo in film history. Numerous films, especially western parodies, were part of her repertoire.
During the filming of “God forgives … Django never!” Hill married his current wife, Lori Zwicklbauer, who comes from Germany. The couple have two children. Adopted son Ross died in a car accident in 1990. The son Jess, born in 1969, often appears in his father’s productions.
From Karl May to the pastor in “Don Matteo”
In the 1960s, Hill became known in Germany for his involvement in the Karl May films. He took part in four productions. Many successful years at Bud Spencer’s side followed. The 1970 film “The Devil’s Right and Left Hand” set standards in the Italo-Western comedy genre. A year later followed “Four fists for a hallelujah”, 1972 “Two heavenly dogs on the way to hell”. It went on like this for many years. In 1984 they tried “Four Fists Against Rio”, but the success of previous years never really came back.
Hill, who sometimes stood behind the camera in films like “No one hits like Don Camillo” or “The Troublemaker”, also celebrated some successes on the screen solo. He had one of the best-known roles in the early 1970s in “My Name is Nobody”. After the Bud Spencer era, Hill focused primarily on serial productions. Until 2015 he was involved in “The Mountain Police – Very Close to Heaven” for four years.
Above all, he made a name for himself as a pastor with the last series. From 2000-2018 he played the leading role in the Italian series “Don Matteo” for over 18 years.
In 2018 he played the leading role in “My Name is Somebody”. He wrote the work and also directed it. The film was a dedication to his friend and colleague Bud Spencer, who passed away in 2016.
Source: Stern
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