Gigi Ballista

Acting

Gigi Ballista

Born — Died

1918-12-01 — 1980-08-02

Place of birth

Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Known for

Acting

Credits

57 titles

Gigi Ballista (1 December 1918 – 2 August 1980) was an Italian film and television actor. He appeared in 60 films between 1961 and 1980. Born in Florence, Ballista graduated in Law, then he started working as a PR consultant in the field of advertising and industrial documentaries. He debuted as an actor at a mature age in the early 1960s with some minor roles, but his breakout came in 1966 with a role of weight in Pietro Germi's The Birds, the Bees and the Italians. Following the critical and commercial success of the film, Ballista decided to pursue a professional career as an actor, and he became, mainly thanks to his characteristic hoarse and dysphonic voice, one of the most recognizab…

Known for

Midnight Express poster
7.4

Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".

Midnight Express

1978

Salon Kitty poster
5.6

In Nazi Germany, Kitty runs a brothel where the soldiers come to 'relax'. Recording devices have been installed by a power-hungry official who plans to use the information to blackmail and usurp Hitler. One of the girls discovers the ploy and, with the madam's help, takes on the dangerous task of exposing the conspiracy.

Salon Kitty

1976

The Secret of Santa Vittoria poster
6.9

During World War II, Italian villagers hide their wine from the German army.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria

1970

The Sunday Woman poster
6.5

Police commissioner Santamaria is investigating the murder of the ambiguous architect Mr. Garrone. The investigations soon drive him into the Torino's high society. Santamaria suspect Anna Carla and at the same time falls in love for her. Lello is the lover of Massimo, Anna Carla’s gay friend. He is following another direction in order to find out the truth, and his results are confusing the Policeman. But another murder happens...

The Sunday Woman

1975

Giovannona Long-Thigh poster
5.9

When a judge shuts down a high profile cheese factory for violating pollution standards, the owner bribes a monsignor to fix the problem. After they discover the judge has a predilection for married women, the owner employs a prostitute to pose as his wife in an attempt to seduce the judge.

Giovannona Long-Thigh

1973

Roma bene poster
6.0

A parade of corrupt and sleazy characters in the high society of Rome.

Roma bene

1971

Film credits

1970s · 39 titles

Midnight Express poster
7.4

Billy Hayes is caught attempting to smuggle drugs out of a country. The courts decide to make an example of him, sentencing him to more than 30 years in prison. Hayes has two opportunities for release: the appeals made by his lawyer, his family, and the American government, or the "Midnight Express".

Midnight Express

1978

Salon Kitty poster
5.6

In Nazi Germany, Kitty runs a brothel where the soldiers come to 'relax'. Recording devices have been installed by a power-hungry official who plans to use the information to blackmail and usurp Hitler. One of the girls discovers the ploy and, with the madam's help, takes on the dangerous task of exposing the conspiracy.

Salon Kitty

1976

The Secret of Santa Vittoria poster
6.9

During World War II, Italian villagers hide their wine from the German army.

The Secret of Santa Vittoria

1970

The Sunday Woman poster
6.5

Police commissioner Santamaria is investigating the murder of the ambiguous architect Mr. Garrone. The investigations soon drive him into the Torino's high society. Santamaria suspect Anna Carla and at the same time falls in love for her. Lello is the lover of Massimo, Anna Carla’s gay friend. He is following another direction in order to find out the truth, and his results are confusing the Policeman. But another murder happens...

The Sunday Woman

1975

Giovannona Long-Thigh poster
5.9

When a judge shuts down a high profile cheese factory for violating pollution standards, the owner bribes a monsignor to fix the problem. After they discover the judge has a predilection for married women, the owner employs a prostitute to pose as his wife in an attempt to seduce the judge.

Giovannona Long-Thigh

1973

Roma bene poster
6.0

A parade of corrupt and sleazy characters in the high society of Rome.

Roma bene

1971

Stavisky... poster
5.9

Biarritz, 1933. Charm and talent assist small-time swindler Serge Alexandre, alias Stavisky, to bribe his way into the centre of French politics. But when his great scam involving millions is exposed, he brings the government to the verge of collapse and the country to the brink of civil war.

Stavisky...

1974

Confessions of a Lady Cop poster
6.0

Gianna Amicucci works in the house of the head of her hometown police force and enters the academy with a kickback from him. She is a beautiful woman (she generously sheds clothes during the film) and has to overcome her male colleagues prejudices, but she gains their respect through a series of brilliant operations.

Confessions of a Lady Cop

1976

The Family Vice poster
5.3

When Giacomo D'Amato is released from jail he is immediately employed by Magda, in a plot to secure her the heritage of the count. But there are other players in this game too, and Giacomo has his own agenda.

The Family Vice

1975

Blume in Love poster
5.9

Lawyer Stephen Blume, who specializes in divorces, lives a paradoxical situation when, having his own marriage break up, is still in love with his ex-wife.

Blume in Love

1973

Lady Caliph poster
5.5

La Califfa's husband was killed during the strikes so she takes the side of the strikers. Her conflict with the plant owner Doverdo gradually turns into a love relationship.

Lady Caliph

1970

The Schoolmate poster
5.2

Lilli Carati plays a high school student being pursued by a very persistent young man in this Italian sex-comedy

The Schoolmate

1977

Poker in Bed poster
4.4

A poker player on a losing streak meets a beautiful young woman. He's attracted to her, but she appears to be perfectly content with her boyfriend, a somewhat wussy writer. The gambler gets the idea that if he can get this woman into bed, it will change his luck at the gambling tables.

Poker in Bed

1974

Italian Sex poster
4.8

A sexy graduate student is giving her thesis presentation, which creates quite a stir since it reveals that she has just posed as a prostitute for several months to do sociological research for her thesis. She relates various stories of her experiences to her salivating thesis committee and a large audience of curious on-lookers.

Italian Sex

1974

Under the Sheets poster
5.2

Three medical students who are reluctant to hit the books and unwilling to work are much more enthusiastic about creating pranks and targeting a thriving confidential, female doctor.

Under the Sheets

1976

Black Turin poster
5.3

Mino and Lello, two sons of a worker wrongly accused of murder, try to find out evidence of his innocence and begin to investigate mafia business in Torino.

Black Turin

1972

Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia poster
7.2

In Italy, a dying woman tells her granddaughter that she hid her treasure many years ago in Russia, in the city of Leningrad. As more people learn about it, they head to Leningrad to find the lion where it is rumoured to be buried.

Unbelievable Adventures of Italians in Russia

1974

Horse Fever poster
7.3

Bruno Fioretti, known as "Mandrake", is an inveterate gambler who never misses a day at the horse racing track in Rome. He is doubly unlucky: he bets too much on one horse, and his wife is sleeping with his best friend because Mandrake is always at the track. Penniless and cuckolded, Mandrake decides to make one last bet.

Horse Fever

1976

Policewoman poster
5.6

A young policewoman discovers an ecological scandal and must face the corruption in the Milan Police department.

Policewoman

1974

No One Will Notice You're Naked poster
4.9

Rosario Trapanese is determined to show he is not the typical old-fashion Sicilian. When his firm sends him to Denmark, a more sexual liberated nation than Italy, he immediately adopts the Danish "free-sexual-taboo" way of life. He meets and married Karen and succeeded to come back in Italy. Once here, he discovers Karen did a porn movie and his determination on being open minded is over. The typical Sicilian jealousy drives him crazy. Anyway, after a while, Rosario understands that what his wife did before to meet him it has not to be an issue for him. Karen confesses Rosario she signed a contract for a second movie and she could refuse only by paying a fine. The couple doesn't have enough money so they need to find a solution. And what a solution!

No One Will Notice You're Naked

1971

1001 Nights of Pleasure poster
4.7

Sultan Almamud suddenly becomes powerless, unable to enjoy his beautiful Zumurud. The councillors then call people who can excite them by telling stories. At the end of their tales, he will finally be able to enjoy her.

1001 Nights of Pleasure

1972

Snow Job poster
5.8

A famous skier, his mistress and a ski instructor rob a bank in the Alps and hide the loot in a crevasse.

Snow Job

1972

Do Not Commit Adultery poster
4.6

Pino is a young man who lives in Assisi with his father Damiano, a communist revolutionary, and his partner Nadine. One day Pino sees Maria Teresa studying Latin and starts giving her some lessons. Soon they fall in love.

Do Not Commit Adultery

1971

Jet Set Swingers poster
3.8

A married woman falls in love with a playboy dedicated to blackmail, to avoid that reveal his unedifying past, abandons her.

Jet Set Swingers

1970

Trastevere poster
6.8

A retired actor's search for his stray pet strings together this episodic portrait of the ancient Roman quarter.

Trastevere

1971

Increase and Multiply poster
4.0

Italian comedy

Increase and Multiply

1973

Permettete signora che ami vostra figlia? poster
5.5

Gino Pistone is an actor in a local theatre, but his plays aren't successful. But then he gets a genius idea: to make a play on the love story of Benito Mussolini and Claretta Petacci.

Permettete signora che ami vostra figlia?

1974

Blessed Are the Rich poster
7.4

Two brothers-in-law, a smuggler and the other traffic policeman, get hold of a large sum of money, destined for illegal exportation to Switzerland, after the courier is killed in a fire fight with the border police. The owners of the money, which occupy an important social position, try in every way to recover it, also leveraging the weakness of the policeman. After the petty betrayal of his brother-in-law, the smuggler decides to keep all the money and flee to Switzerland.

Blessed Are the Rich

1972

Mala, Love and Death poster
4.7

The young Marisa, after having inherited from her aunt, gets involved in blackmail and crime.

Mala, Love and Death

1977

The Noon Vigilante poster
7.0

Franco is abandoned by his wife and daughter who wrongly accuse him of being a wimp. Besides he's bossed around and sexually harassed at work. He decides to take justice into his own hands and get rough with the world. He soon gets his family's respect back.

The Noon Vigilante

1975

Fischia Il Sesso poster
8.0

A girl from New York, Carol, to get married turns to the marriage agency of Mr. Lewis, who introduces her to Gavino, a young Sardinian immigrant clandestine.

Fischia Il Sesso

1974

La madama poster
6.1

In the slang of the underworld or "mala" there is a special term for cop: "Madama". But if word were to get around that the "Madama" is Vito (Christian De Sica) they might even start to like the guy. Vito is a funny sort of a cop. For a start he doesn't like the uniform (he never wears it). Things might even go smoothly for him, if it weren't for an incredible number of beautiful girls who always manage to get in his way. Especially one girl Angelo (shouldn't that have been Angela? No, the girl's name really is Angelo). Problems arise too, with his direct supervisor, who also happens to be a relative. But Vito puts up with it all and manages to stay his usual calm and polite self, even when he risks getting killed.

La madama

1976

Cassiodorus Is the Hardest Praetorian poster
3.2

The adventures of the Etruscan Cassiodorus who, after having involuntarily captured a rebel, is named centurion and ingratiates himself with Nero. He tries to take advantage of his role to enrich himself with shady deals, but it goes wrong.

Cassiodorus Is the Hardest Praetorian

1975

Kill the Fatted Calf and Roast It poster
5.2

After many years of living abroad, a troubled young man returns home due to the death of his father (who he suspects was actually murdered). He attempts to untangle that mystery while still carrying an unhealthy obsession toward his mother, who committed suicide ten years ago. This obsession then draws in his attractive cousin and takes a sexual turn.

Kill the Fatted Calf and Roast It

1970

The Lady Has Been Raped poster
5.8

Good bourgeois damage unintentionally life of a drug-party, during which the mistress of the house is raped without recognizing the aggressor. Both she and her husband come into crisis and try to figure out who it was. The truth comes to the surface slowly, and it is unexpected.

The Lady Has Been Raped

1973

Un amore targato Forlì poster
10.0

The young Rimini native Stefano Santi goes to Rome, with a letter of recommendation for the maestro Melchiorri, artistic director of the Opera House, to take part in a competition for cellists. While trying in vain to be received by Melchiorri, he met an unscrupulous girl, Giorgia Muller, an architectural student temporarily linked to a fellow student. Between one misfortune and another the cello smashes, a homosexual theater manager tries to enmesh him Stefano, who now has a precarious employment in a nightclub, yields to the allurements of Giorgia, ending up in his bed. The girl, however, is unfaithful to him, so that Stefano, disgusted with her, and having now lost all hope of participating in the competition,

Un amore targato Forlì

1976

Liquirizia poster
4.9

Two groups of students - the third-class high school students and the matured accountants - decide to perform a show to celebrate the last day of school.

Liquirizia

1979

No artwork available
8.0

No synopsis available yet.

Il fratello

1975

Anima mia poster
9.0

Insatiable playboy Marco Donati decides to marry his latest flame, the beautiful Francesca. When the news gets into local newspapers, many of his former lovers are annoyed.

Anima mia

1974

1960s · 14 titles

Emma Hamilton poster
4.4

In the second half of the 18th century, the young shepherdess Emma accidentally catches the eye of the English painter George Romney. She becomes his model in London, where she also has several love affairs. After she is temporarily forced to work as a prostitute, she marries the much older Lord William Hamilton, who is stationed as British ambassador in Naples. There she meets Admiral Nelson again, whom Emma, now Lady Hamilton, had met years before...

Emma Hamilton

1968

The Maniacs poster
5.2

An anthology of brief comic sketches based on manias, mainly sexual, featuring several figures of Italian society.

The Maniacs

1964

The Birds, the Bees and the Italians poster
7.2

An anthology presents three storylines, all set in the Italian town of Treviso: A husband pretends to be impotent as a cover for having an affair; a bank clerk abandons his wife for his mistress, but the rest of the town's husbands become jealous and unite to conspire against them; and local men all seduce a promiscuous young woman, but when her father eventually reveals that she is underage, they all face prosecution for statutory rape.

The Birds, the Bees and the Italians

1966

How I Learned to Love Women poster
4.8

An erotic comedy about the many affairs of a young man with different women.

How I Learned to Love Women

1966

The Queens poster
5.4

Four comedic shorts explore quirky relationships and misadventures: a teenage girl's journey home, a self-serving babysitter, a husband confronting infidelity, and a wealthy woman's drunken escapades with her butler.

The Queens

1966

The Seventh Floor poster
6.0

In this unusual offbeat black comedy directed by Ugo Tognazzi, Giuseppe (Tognazzi) is a middle-aged industrialist obsessed with gadgets. When his nose starts to whistle uncontrollably, he checks into a clinic to resolve the problem. What begins as a minor affliction worsens, and Giuseppe is placed on a different floor as his ailments multiply. The sicker he gets, the higher he goes up in the floors of the clinic, until he is near death's door.

The Seventh Floor

1967

The Man Who Betrayed the Mafia poster
4.8

When an oily attorney dies at the hands of the mafia, a dedicated French detective investigates the man's murder. He soon uncovers a drug-smuggling operation and lets his sawed-off shotgun do the talking to the toughs in this Gallic gangster feature.

The Man Who Betrayed the Mafia

1967

Pleasant Nights poster
6.6

A trilogy of comedic tales set in the Middle Ages.

Pleasant Nights

1966

The Climax poster
6.2

A violin player is going to be father of a sixth child by his second mistress, Marisa. Quite nervous about that, he does not leave the clinic... except to drive Giulia, his legitimate wife, along with his legitimate kids to the station as they leave for a vacation at the seaside.

The Climax

1967

Torture Me But Kill Me with Kisses poster
6.7

When Marino goes to Rome for an event, he certainly does not imagine meeting Marisa, who will become the love of his life. But once love is found, it is a matter of spreading it and here the difficulties begin: first the father who opposes it; then, after the death of his father, the gossips who make Marino believe that Marisa was a little good, so much so that Marisa runs away. Repentant, Marino searches in vain and then, almost by accident, finds her again, Mrs. Ciceri. But love admits no obstacles, not even that of a deaf and dumb husband.

Torture Me But Kill Me with Kisses

1968

Galileo poster
6.3

A humble scientist from Padua proves that the Earth revolves and that it is not the center of the universe.

Galileo

1968

The Dress Rehearsal poster
5.7

In La prova generale, Carlo (Carlo Cecchi) interviews with a tape machine and a microphone his young lover while the two wander in the beautiful splendour of a wood on the edge of the city.

The Dress Rehearsal

1967

Sunstroke poster
10.0

One Sunday in summer a mixed crowd pours on to a beach near Rome. A few tourists who had hoped to spend a relaxing day, find themselves involved in a series of unpleasant experiences instead.

Sunstroke

1968

Il morbidone poster
3.7

Study of a man whose basic sense of inferiority leads him from worse to worse.

Il morbidone

1965

Series credits