Ernesto Colli

Ernesto Colli (16 May 1940 – 19 November 1982) was an Italian film, television and stage actor.

Life and career
Born in Biella, Colli graduated from liceo classico, then he started acting in some amateur dramatics and starred in two lost Super 8 films. After one year of university he decided to abandon his studies to enroll the Fersen drama school in Rome.

A real life friend of Vittorio Gassman, Colli often acted alongside him, especially on stage, and he made his film debut playing a small role in the Gassman's film The Devil in Love. He then appeared in a large number of movies and TV-series, even if usually in character roles. He was a character actor who acted actively especially during the seventies.

Equipped with a particularly disturbing face, Ernesto Colli always recited customized roles for him, from the crazy to the delinquent and from the possessed to the weird man; probably the films where he had a most significant part was The Pleasure Shop on 7th Avenue and in Deadly Inheritance.

The last role he played was that of a porter of a stable in Rome, in the movie Pierino La Peste Alla Riscossa!, shot a few months before his death and in which he already appeared with the face and the physique excavated by disease.

Selected filmography

 * Il morbidone (1965) - Uomo del monsignore (uncredited)
 * Pleasant Nights (1966) - Baccio
 * The Devil in Love (1966)
 * Deadly Inheritance (1968) - Janot
 * Lucrezia (1968) - Valetto ambasciatore
 * Spirits of the Dead (1968) - One of the Manetti brothers - director (segment "Toby Dammit") (uncredited)
 * Faustina (1968) - Vespasiano - Lover of Faustina's mother
 * Italiani! È severamente proibito servirsi della toilette durante le fermate (1969)
 * The Conspiracy of Torture (1969) - Chief Guard (uncredited)
 * Belle d'amore (1970) - Magnaccia (uncredited)
 * Quella chiara notte d'ottobre (1970)
 * La califfa (1970) - Un operaio
 * La Poudre d'escampette (1971)
 * Er Più – storia d'amore e di coltello (1971) - Gigi
 * Per amore o per forza (1971)
 * Maddalena (1971)
 * Stanza 17-17 palazzo delle tasse, ufficio imposte (1971) - Parking Attendant
 * Caliber 9 (1972) - Alfredo Bertolon
 * Bronte: cronaca di un massacro che i libri di storia non hanno raccontato (1972)
 * Hai sbagliato... dovevi uccidermi subito! (1972) - Dr. Torres
 * Decameron nº 3 - Le più belle donne del Boccaccio (1972) - Renutio (segment "The Mummy")
 * Winged Devils (1972) - Leutnant Ernesto del Prete
 * The Infamous Column (1972) - Judge
 * Rugantino (1973)
 * Torso (1973) - Gianni Tomasso, the scarf vendor
 * Non ho tempo (1973)
 * Hospitals: The White Mafia (1973) - Patient on the bus
 * Seven Hours of Violence (1973) - Tomassian
 * Buona parte di Paolina (1973)
 * Claretta and Ben (1974) - Remengo
 * The Antichrist (1974) - Possessed Man
 * Bello come un arcangelo (1974) - Cicillo, Sacristan
 * Autopsy (1975) - Ivo
 * The Suspect (1975) - Party Functionary in Paris
 * Giubbe rosse (1975) - Photographer (uncredited)
 * The Peaceful Age (1975) - Imbianchino
 * Go Gorilla Go (1975) - The Watchman of Builder's Yard (uncredited)
 * Illustrious Corpses (1976) - Detective on night duty
 * Free Hand for a Tough Cop (1976) - Roschetto
 * Meet Him and Die (1976) - Settecapelli
 * Puttana galera! (1976)
 * Io tigro, tu tigri, egli tigra (1978) - Conduttore del telegiornale (uncredited)
 * Il Porno Shop Della Settima Strada (1979) - Bob
 * Switch (1979) - Il Malato
 * Pierino la Peste Alla Riscossa! (1982) - portiere di via Piccolomini
 * Porca vacca (1982) - (final film role)