Italian actor Francesco Castelnuovo, known as Nino, died Monday at the age of 84, his family announced on Tuesday (September 7th). Known to have been Catherine Deneuve’s lover in Umbrellas of Cherbourg, the actor succumbed to a long illness in Rome, said his wife, actress Maria Cristina DI Nicola.
Nino Castelnuovo began his career playing supporting roles in relatively modest films in the late 1950s, before appearing in Rocco and his brothers (1960), by Luchino Visconti, alongside Alain Delon, Annie Girardot and Claudia Cardinale. He then became a popular actor thanks to the television adaptation of the masterpiece of Italian literature I promise sposi (Married persons) by Alessandro Mazoni.
His success had reached France after he had played the young Guy, in love with Geneviève (played by Catherine Deneuve) in Umbrellas of Cherbourg, cult film by Jacques Demy and Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1964. In addition, he also played the archaeologist D’Agostino in The English Patient, by Anthony Minghella, in 1996.