Italian film actor Bud Spencer is dead

Bud Spencer, a burly comic actor dubbed the “good giant” for punching out bad guys on the screen, often in a long series of spaghetti westerns, has died in Italy. He was 86.

Italian news agency ANSA quoted his son, Giuseppe Pedersoli, as saying without adding medical details that his father died peacefully on Monday evening.

Born in Naples as Carlo Pedersoli, he adopted the stage name Bud Spencer — the first name inspired by a beer and the last to honour his favourite star, Spencer Tracy.

In his youth, Spencer was an athlete, becoming the first Italian to swim the 100-meter freestyle in under a minute. Spencer’s roles exploited his physical strength, especially his big frame. His imposing figure earned him a walk-on part as a Praetorian guard in the 1951 film Quo Vadis?

Italian director Mario Monicelli gave him his first big role in the 1955 film Un eroe dei nostri tempi (A hero of our times). Spencer abandoned his swimming career after the 1960 Olympics in Rome. Working on a 1967 film, Dio perdona io no, (God forgives, I don’t), Spencer met up with actor Mario Girotti, who would take the stage name Terence Hill and become his frequent movie partner in spaghetti westerns.

Spencer said sports taught him humility. “One day you wake up and someone goes better than you. And you’re not anyone anymore. It’s the same way in cinema.”