He was born in Palermo on May 26, 1901, to Gaetano, VII prince of Giardinelli (1871-1943), and his consort Celeste Barbera, where he was the second of four children.[1] He was a member of the main branch of the noble Starrabba family.
A lawyer and agricultural entrepreneur by profession,[2] in 1943 he was among the people who supported the Movement for the Independence of Sicily.[3] In 1945–46, he was among the 430 consultants of the National Consultation by designation of the National Democratic Liberal Concentration party.[4] Subsequently, with the Liberal Democratic Bloc he was elected deputy to the I legislature of the Sicilian Regional Assembly (1947–51), in the single regional constituency.[4] Having switched to the Italian Liberal Party, he was a candidate for the House in the 1953 general election, and for the Senate in the Palermo II constituency in the 1958 general election, where, however, he failed to be elected.[5]
He lived for many years in Ragusa, where he took care of his own greenhouses, and died in Palermo on October 8, 1985, at the age of 84.[6]