Bartolomeo Pagano was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 motion picture

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 actor

Actor

An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...

.

Before his cinema career, Pagano was a stevedore

Stevedore

Stevedore, dockworker, docker, dock labourer, wharfie and longshoreman can have various waterfront-related meanings concerning loading and unloading ships, according to place and country....

 who worked at the port of Genoa

Genoa

Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....

. There, he was discovered and selected to play the role of Maciste

Maciste

Maciste is one of the oldest recurring characters in cinema. He cuts a heroic figure throughout the history of the cinema of Italy from the 1910s to the 1970s, even if most of the movies that featured him are considered to be of poor artistic quality...

, a muscular slave

Slavery

Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...

, in the silent movie

Silent Movie

Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...

 classic Cabiria

Cabiria

Cabiria is a silent movie from the early years of Italy's movie industry, directed by Giovanni Pastrone . The movie is set in ancient Sicily, Carthage, and Cirta during the period of the Second Punic War . It follows a melodramatic main plot about an abducted little girl, Cabiria, and features...

in 1914. As the originator of this role, he went on to play the character for the next 14 years in a series of sequels. Pagano became an international star, and legally changed his name to Maciste. The actor retired from films in 1926 to marry and raised a family in his home town in Italy. Maciste died at the age of 68, and is buried on the family estate in Italy.

External links

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sword_and_sandal