Michele Placido

Italian actor and director, best known for the role of Corrado Cattani in the TV series La Piovra.

He made his debut as an actor in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1969. His first success came with the role of soldier Paolo Passeri in Marcia trionfale (1976, directed by Marco Bellocchio), for which he won a David di Donatello. Two years later he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor award at the 29th Berlin International Film Festival for his role of the homosexual worker in ironical melodrama Ernesto (1978, by Salvatore Samperi).

He appeared in several TV movies in the 1970s, but 1983 marked the beginning of his greatest television popularity when he played the lead as a police inspector investigating the Mafia in Damiano Damiani's TV series La Piovra. He went on to play the same part in the subsequent three series, until his character's assassination.

Until their divorce in 1994, he was married to actress Simonetta Stefanelli, who is best known for having played Michael Corleone's first (Sicilian) wife in The Godfather. Their daughter Violante Placido is also an actress.

In 2012 he married actress Federica Vincenti (b. 8 November 1983) after over 10 years of dating each other.