Bud Spencer

Bud Spencer was an Italian swimmer and actor who appeared in over 70 films over the course of a career that spanned over 60 years. Born in Naples, Spencer, who was born Carlo Pedersoli, was a gifted athlete as a very young boy. Although he excelled at various sports, however, it was swimming that really caught his interest. At a slim and lanky 6'4", Spencer had the perfect swimmer's body and began competing professionally while still in his teens.

Spencer's knack for swimming eventually caught the eye of the coach of Italy's national swimming team, who asked Spencer to join in 1949. Before long he was crushing the competition in various international swimming competitions, while racking up numerous awards in the process. Spencer's swimming career lasted until his late 20s, and included two Summer Olympics appearances, in 1952 and 1956. By the late 1950s, however, he decided to hang up his trunks for good.

Perhaps having foreseen the imminent demise of his athletic career, Spencer took on a second career as an actor in the early 1950s. Although most of his roles in the 1950s were small, in 1959 he appeared in the action film "Hannibal" alongside Terrence Hall. Spencer may not have known it at the time, but their collaboration on that film would begin one of the most prolific movie partnerships in the history of Italian cinema.

Over the next thirty-plus years Spencer and Hall appeared in over 20 action-comedies together, including "The Call Me Trinity" (1970), "Crime Busters" (1977), and "Double Trouble" (1984). Both Italian and international film audiences alike loved Spencer and Hall's films, making them two of the most successful international film actors of the second half of the twentieth century.

Spencer retired from acting in 2010 and spent the remainder of his days at his home in Rome. He died there peacefully at the age of 86 on June 27, 2016 surrounded by his family.