Paolo Bonacelli

Acting

Paolo Bonacelli

Born 1937-02-28 · Rome, Italy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Paolo Bonacelli (February 28, 1939 - October 8 2025) was an Italian actor. He is best known for his performance as The Duke de Blangis in Pasolini's notorious Salò (1975). He can also be seen in Midnight Express (1978) and Caligula (1979), in which he plays the role of Cassius Chaerea. He also co-starred with Roberto Benigni in the films Johnny Stecchino and Night on Earth, both from 1991. Description above from the Wikipedia article Paolo Bonacelli, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Acting credits

Mission: Impossible III poster
6.8

Retired from active duty, and training recruits for the Impossible Mission Force, agent Ethan Hunt faces the toughest foe of his career: Owen Davian, an international broker of arms and information, who's as cunning as he is ruthless. Davian emerges to threaten Hunt and all that he holds dear – including the woman Hunt loves.

Mission: Impossible III

2006

Caligula poster
6.0

After the death of the paranoid emperor Tiberius, Caligula, his heir, seizes power and plunges the empire into a bloody spiral of madness and depravity.

Caligula

1979

The American poster
6.0

Dispatched to a small Italian town to await further orders, assassin Jack embarks on a double life that may be more relaxing than is good for him.

The American

2010

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom poster
6.3

Four corrupted fascist libertines round up 9 teenage boys and girls and subject them to 120 days of sadistic physical, mental and sexual torture.

Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

1976

In the Hand of Dante poster
5.5

A Vatican priest discovers Dante's original Divine Comedy manuscript. When asked to authenticate it, writer Nick Tosches steals it, while a parallel story follows Dante's quest to create his masterpiece.

In the Hand of Dante

2026

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

Night on Earth poster
7.5

A quintet of cabbies in five cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

Night on Earth

1991

Le Guignolo poster
6.1

After the failure of his recent criminal exploits, international con artist Alexandre Dupré sets off for Venice to try to dupe some Japanese business men into buying a fake copy of a stolen Caneletto. On the aeroplane, a stranger asks him to look after his briefcase until after they have landed. Alexandre agrees, but the stranger is shot dead soon after and Alexandre himself becomes the target of enemy agents who are keen to recover the briefcase...

Le Guignolo

1980

Touch and Die poster
5.0

Martin Sheen stars as an American newsman in Rome who begins to investigate the appearance of several corpses found throughout Europe with their hands cut off. He soon uncovers not only plots of plutonium theft, but also of nuclear arms deals and dark political schemes.

Touch and Die

1991

Abraham poster
7.1

Rather than choosing a great leader or king, God chooses Abraham, an elderly shepherd from Mesopotamia, as the way to establish his Covenant with mankind... A man of great faith, Abraham continues to believe in God even when He seems to have abandoned him.

Abraham

1993

The Stendhal Syndrome poster
5.4

A young policewoman slowly goes insane while tracking down an elusive serial rapist/killer through Italy when she herself becomes a victim of the brutal man's obsession.

The Stendhal Syndrome

1996

Rimini Rimini poster
4.8

Funny, entertaining comedy with a few storylines. All of them have one thing in common - a resort town of Rimini in Italy.

Rimini Rimini

1987

Johnny Stecchino poster
7.3

Good hearted but not very wordly-wise, Dante is happy driving the school bus for a group of mentally handicapped children, while feeling he is somehow missing out on life and love. So he is very excited when after nearly being knocked down by her car he meets Maria, who seems immediately enamoured of him. He is soon invited to her sumptuous Palermo villa, little suspecting that this is part of a plot. He bears an amazing likeness to Maria's stool-pigeon gangster husband and it would be convenient for them if the mobster, in the shape of Dante, was seen to be dead and buried.

Johnny Stecchino

1991

The Commander poster
6.9

One dark night during the early phases of WWII, the Italian Royal Navy submarine Cappellini sinks an armed merchant ship sailing with lights out. At that moment, its commander Salvatore Todaro makes a decision that was destined to go down in history: to save the 26 shipwrecked Belgians who otherwise would have drowned in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and disembark them at the nearest safe harbor. To make room for them on board his submarine, he is forced to navigate on the surface of the water for three days, visible to the enemy forces and endangering his life and that of his men.

The Commander

2023

Lenin: The Train poster
6.4

March/April 1917. The first world war is already a couple year to pace. A sealed train with Russian emigrants keeps on driving from Zürich Germany and Sweden to Sint-Petersburg. The outlaws stand under the guidance of Vladimir J. Lenin. Two senior officers support the revolutionary bomb "to ensure that everything runs smoothly. Yet there are some unpleasant clashes between Socialists and enthusiastic workers who are worried about the war. During train travel there comes an end to Lenin's affair with the gracious Inessa, and his wife Nadja is prepared take back him. The triumphant entrance in St. Petersburg will exceed all expectations....

Lenin: The Train

1988

Magical Nights poster
6.1

Rome, 1990. The night Italy's national football team is eliminated from the World Cup by Argentina on penalty kicks, a well-known film producer is found dead in the Tiber river. The main suspects for the murder are three young aspiring screenwriters, who–promptly taken to the police–start to tell their version of the story.

Magical Nights

2018

Francesco poster
6.6

The life of St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) as related by followers who gather after his death to tell stories so that Leone can record them: a privileged and virile youth, a prisoner of war, an heir who turns away from his father and gives all to the poor, a beggar for others, and an inspiration to friends who accept the Gospels' life of poverty.

Francesco

1989

The Devil in Love poster
5.8

Two devils from Hell are sent to Earth to cause trouble. Belfagor and his faithful sidekick Adramalek must start a war between Rome and Florence in 1478.

The Devil in Love

1966

Nothing Left to Do But Cry poster
7.7

Two 20th-century friends accidentally stumble into the year 1492, where they meet a charming teen and try to alter history.

Nothing Left to Do But Cry

1984

Dirty Linen poster
6.2

The Razzi family owns a small factory of sweets in Macerata. Their desire to enlarge their business to cope with the new Unified European Market brings to a string of fatal mistakes that will ultimately doom their wealth.

Dirty Linen

1999

The Inheritance poster
6.3

In 1880 Rome, a patriarch closes the family bakery. His ambitious daughter-in-law manipulates her brothers-in-law to prevent their father's remarriage, securing her inheritance.

The Inheritance

1976

Giordano Bruno poster
6.4

Fleeing from his enemies in the Catholic Church, the free thinking philosopher, poet and scientist Giordano Bruno has found some protection in Venice. But the Roman Inquisition, fearing his influence in Europe, wants to bring him on trial for 'heresy'.

Giordano Bruno

1973

Nest of Vipers poster
5.0

A background of rising fascism in Venice in 1930s. A music-student, Matthias, mixes with the town's bourgeoisie and falls in love with a mature teacher, Carla, the mother of his friend Renato, and then with his young colleague, Elena.

Nest of Vipers

1978

The Mystery of Oberwald poster
5.8

A man, mirroring the assassinated King, infiltrates a castle to kill the Queen but hesitates, leading to a deadly dare and revelation of shared history.

The Mystery of Oberwald

1981