Mattia Sbragia

Mattia Sbragia (born April 17, 1952) is an Italian character actor. The son of the actor and stage director Giancarlo, Sbragia has been performing in films, on television, and in the theater for almost thirty years. He made his motion picture debut in 1974, in Franco Rossetti's Nipoti Miei Diletti (1974). He has since become a clear favorite of several of Italy's top directors, appearing in Tonino Cervi's Ritratto di borghesia in nero (1977), Mauro Bolognini's La Dame Aux Camelias (1981), with Isabelle Huppert, and Pupi Avati's Storia di ragazzi e di ragazze (1989), to name only a few. He has also acted often in international productions such as John Frankenheimer's The Year of the Gun (1991), Norman Jewison's Only You (1994), and James Ivory's The Golden Bowl (1999). Sbragia's most recent film appearances have been in Tom Tykwer's Heaven (2001) and Brian Helgeland's The Order (2003). He has also appeared frequently on television, in productions such as Damiano Damiani's landmark MOW Lenin: The Train (1990), with Ben Kingsley, and Josee Dayan's 1998 version of The Count of Monte Cristo, with Gérard Depardieu. On stage, he has had major roles in productions of The Tempest, Orestes, Faust, and The Iliad. He is also a noted theater director who has staged successful Roman productions of Madame Bovary, Padrone Del Mondo, La Poltrona, and Ore Rubate. He also played the High Priest Caiaphas in Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.