Ernesto Colli

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

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 were The Pleasure Shop on 7th Avenue and 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.