Claudio Volonté

Claudio Camaso (born Claudio Volonté; 3 February 1939 – 16 September 1977) was an Italian actor, noted as much for his troubled, violent life as for his performances. He was the younger brother of Gian Maria Volonté. Early life and career Claudio Volonté was born in Turin in 1939, in the days leading up to the Second World War. His father, Mario, was a committed fascist who commanded a unit of the paramilitary Black Brigades (Brigate Nera) at Chivasso during the final months of the Italian Social Republic, while his mother Carolina (née Bianchi) was a scion of the Milanese haute bourgeoisie. In the aftermath of the war, Mario Volonté was sentenced to thirty years in prison upon being found guilty of aiding the military operations of the enemy "by ordering and participating in rounding up elements of the resistance movement in which many murders and robberies were committed". Although excluded from the general amnesty pronounced by the then justice minister, Palmiro Togliatti, he only served eight years of his sentence. His absence nevertheless led to a life of privations and hardships for the rest of the Volonté family. Following in the footsteps of his elder brother Gian Maria, Claudio decided to become an actor, and at some point in the early 1960s he adopted the pseudonym of Claudio Camaso. From 1964 to 1976 Camaso appeared in more than twenty films, again emulating his brother by starring in Spaghetti Westerns such as Antonio Margheriti's film Vengeance (1968). Latterly he reverted back to his real name, maintaining a career as a supporting actor by participating in Westerns, gialli movies and lurid, low-budget mondo productions, of which CIA Secret Story (Faccia di spia; 1975) – his last film, in which he played Che Guevara – is perhaps a prime example. Controversies Unlike his brother, who was noted for his attachment to radical left-wing causes, Camaso's youth was marked by clear neo-fascist sympathies. While still a minor he was acquitted on a charge of taking part in a demonstration that damaged property owned by the Italian Communist Party (PCI), and he was later accused of being involved in a bomb attack on another Communist Party building.