He was Catherine Deneuved's lover in
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
: Italian actor Nico Castelnuovo died at the age of 84, his family announced on Tuesday.
The actor succumbed Monday in Rome to a long illness according to his wife, actress Maria Cristina Di Nicola and their two children, cited by the Italian press.
Read also Jacques Demy, in the fashion of his time
Nico Castelnuovo, born Francesco Castelnuovo on October 28, 1936 in Lombardy, had started playing supporting roles in relatively modest films in the late 1950s, before appearing in
Rocco et ses frères
(1960) by Luchino Visconti, alongside by Alain Delon, Annie Girardot and Claudia Cardinale.
Become a popular actor thanks to the television adaptation of the masterpiece of Italian literature
I promessi sposi
(
The fiancés
) by Alessandro Mazoni, he was known in France for having played the young Guy Foucher, in love with Geneviève Émery ( Catherine Deneuve) in
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
, cult film by Jacques Demy, Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1964.
He also played the archaeologist D'Agostino in
Anthony Minghella's
The English Patient
in 1996.