Kirk Morris (born 26 August 1942) is an Italian bodybuilder and actor, best known for his work in sword-and-sandal films.
Kirk Morris (born 26 August 1942) is an Italian bodybuilder and actor, best known for his work in sword-and-sandal films.
Born in Venice as Adriano Bellini, while at university Morris devoted himself to bodybuilding and thanks to his physique he was chosen by the director Tanio Boccia to play the title role in The Triumph of Maciste . [1] [2] He subsequently starred in several other peplum films, including The Witch's Curse by Riccardo Freda. [1] After the decline of the genre, he appeared in several adventure films, then he retired in the early 1970s. [1] He was also an actor of Fotoromanzi. [1]
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Maciste is one of the oldest recurring characters of cinema, created by Gabriele d'Annunzio and Giovanni Pastrone. He is featured throughout the history of the cinema of Italy from the 1910s to the mid-1960s.
The Sons of Hercules is a syndicated Embassy Pictures television show that aired in the United States in the 1960s. The series repackaged 13 Italian sword-and-sandal films by giving them a standardized theme song for the opening and closing titles, as well as a standard introductory narration attempting to relate the lead character in each film to the Greek demigod Hercules. These films however were not all originally made as "Hercules" films in Italy. Although two of them did originally feature Hercules, four of the films were originally Maciste movies in Italy, and the others were just isolated gladiator or mythological hero movies not released theatrically in the US.
Sword-and-sandal, also known as peplum, is a subgenre of largely Italian-made historical, mythological, or biblical epics mostly set in the Greco-Roman antiquity or the Middle Ages. These films attempted to emulate the big-budget Hollywood historical epics of the time, such as Samson and Delilah (1949), Quo Vadis (1951), The Robe (1953), The Ten Commandments (1956), Ben-Hur (1959), Spartacus (1960), and Cleopatra (1963). These films dominated the Italian film industry from 1958 to 1965, eventually being replaced in 1965 by spaghetti Western and Eurospy films.
Samson and His Mighty Challenge is a 1964 Italian sword-and-sandal film, released in 1965 at the very tail end of the peplum craze. Its original title was Ercole, Sansone, Maciste e Ursus gli invincibili. It is also known as Samson and the Mighty Challenge, Combate dei Gigantes, Triumph of the Giants or Le Grand Defi.
Heracles, also known as Hercules, is a Greek and Roman mythological hero known for his strength and far-ranging adventures. He is one of the most commonly portrayed figures from classical mythology in the popular culture of the 20th and 21st centuries.
Giuseppe Addobbati was an Italian film actor known for his roles in Spaghetti Western and action films in the 1960s and 1970s. He was often billed as John MacDouglas for films released to an American audience.
Hercules in the Vale of Woe, a.k.a. Hercules in the Valley of Woe, is a 1961 Italian Franco and Ciccio comedy film directed by Mario Mattoli and starring Kirk Morris as Maciste and Frank Gordon as Hercules. The film is a comical take on the popular sword-and-sandal epics of the 1950s and 1960s.
Carlo Tamberlani was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 127 films between 1931 and 1976. His brother Nando Tamberlani was also an actor.
Camillo Tanio Boccia, was an Italian film director and screenwriter active between the 1950s and the early 1970s. From 1960 onwards, he was regularly credited as Amerigo Anton.
Piero Lulli was an Italian film actor. He appeared in 111 films between 1942 and 1977. He was the younger brother of actor Folco Lulli.
Hélène Chanel is a French actress of Russian heritage. She was active in the 1960s in a variety of European international co-productions of sword and sandal, Eurospy and Spaghetti Westerns. She was credited with a variety of names such as Hélène Chancel, Helen Chanel, Sheryll Morgan, Helen Stoliaroff and Hélène Stoliaroff.
The Witch's Curse is a 1962 Italian peplum-fantasy film, directed by Riccardo Freda.
Domenico Paolella was an Italian director, screenwriter and journalist.
Sergio Ciani, best known as Alan Steel, was an Italian bodybuilder and actor.
Bruno Scipioni was an Italian actor and voice artist.
Mario Feliciani was an Italian actor and voice actor.
Andrea Aureli was an Italian actor.
Hercules of the Desert, aka Maciste and the Women of the Valley, is a 1964 Italian peplum film directed by Tanio Boccia and starring Kirk Morris.
Triumph of the Son of Hercules is a 1961 Italian peplum film directed by Tanio Boccia and starring Kirk Morris.
Ilush Khoshabe (1932–2012) was an Iranian bodybuilder and actor who was born to Assyrian parents in Geogtapa, Iran. In Assyrian, the name Khoshabe means 'Sunday.' He appeared in a number of films produced across the Middle East and Europe under a variety of pseudonyms, including Rod Flash Ilush, Richard Lloyd, Iloosh Khoshabe, and the mononyms Ilush and Iloosh.
