Osvaldo Valenti

Osvaldo Valenti was born in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (present-day Turkey), to a Sicilian nobleman and a wealthy Lebanese woman. His father was the Sicilian baron Michele Valenti, a wealthy merchant from Messina who dealt in carpets and precious oriental artefacts. His mother was Idelty Karichlopoulos, a wealthy Greek Cypriot woman born in Beirut, who was the daughter of the archimandrite of Cyprus.

In 1915 the family left Turkey for Italy, settling first in Bergamo and then in Milan. He attended high schools in St. Gallen, Switzerland and in Würzburg, Bavaria and subsequently enrolled in the law faculty of the Catholic University of Milan.^[2]

Two years later, he left the university and went to live first in Paris and then in Berlin, where he made his acting debut with a supporting role in the German silent drama film Hungarian Rhapsody, directed by Hanns Schwarz (1928). At the beginning of the 1930s, he returned to Italy and worked with film directors Mario Bonnard (Five to Nil, 1932) and Amleto Palermi (La fortuna di Zanze, 1933 and Creatures of the Night, 1934).

In 1935, Valenti met the famous film director Alessandro Blasetti, who gave him a role in the comedy film The Countess of Parma (1937). Valenti played the role of Guy de la Motte in Blasetti's Ettore Fieramosca (1938) gaining appreciation from both critics and the public alike. The success of the movie allowed him to star in many successful films and to be sought after by many leading directors. In 1939, while working on An Adventure of Salvator Rosa (1940), directed by Alessandro Blasetti, he met the actress Luisa Ferida. The pair became romantically involved and had a son, Kim, who died 4 days after his birth.^[2]

In the summer of 1943, the collapse of the fascist regime, followed by the Allied air raids on the capital, caused severe setbacks to Italian film industry. In late 1943, Valenti joined the Republic of Salò, and moved to Venice together with his partner, Luisa Ferida, renouncing a contract for two films to be shot in Spain in early 1944.^[3]

Cinematographic activity restarted in Venice at the Cinevillaggio, created by the Minister of Popular Culture of the Italian Social Republic Fernando Mezzasoma. Valenti starred alongside Ferida in the 1944 film Fatto di Cronaca, directed by Piero Ballerini. This would be Valenti's last feature film. He then spent a few days in Bologna with Ferida, who was pregnant with his child. While they were staying at the Brues Hotel, she had a miscarriage. Shocked by the news, Valenti wrote to a friend: 'I don't want to hear any more talk about art and cinema. I don't want to go to Spain anymore, even though I have a very advantageous contract. I feel that my duty is to do something positive for this piece of land that we still have left".^[4]

In April 1944, Valenti joined, with the rank of lieutenant, the Decima Flottiglia MAS, an elite commando unit led by Junio Valerio Borghese.^[2] He moved to Milan with Ferida and became a liaison officer for the Kriegsmarine Command in Italy.^[5] In May 1944, Valenti joined the Battaglione 'Vega', a branch of the National Republican Navy's Intelligence Service. His knowledge of German and French made him a valuable asset in intelligence operations. Valenti participated in several covert missions to Switzerland on behalf of the Decima Flottiglia MAS. During the liberation of Milan on 25 April 1945, Valenti and Ferida were arrested by members of the Italian Resistance and shot five days later without trial. When they were executed, Ferida was expecting another child. They are buried in the Cimitero Maggiore di Milano.