Paola Gassman, a 78-year-old theater actress and the eldest daughter of the great Vittorio, has died in Rome after a long illness.
She leaves behind two children, Simona and Tommaso, and her lifelong partner Ugo Pagliai. The man, an Italian actor and voice actor, stayed by Gassman’s side until the end. Let’s find out who he is. Ugo Pagliai, who is he? Ugo Pagliai was born on November 13, 1937, in Pistoia.
He began his artistic career in the world of acting in 1956, when he moved to Rome after his initial work experiences as a clerk and singer. In the capital, the actor trained at the National Academy of Dramatic Art Silvio D’Amico, where he met his soulmate, Paola Gassman. In 1962, Pagliai made his theater debut in Genoa, Rome, and Abruzzo.
He then decided to found a theater company with his partner. On television, he was Lawrence of Arabia in “Ross” in 1969, but he also starred in other TV dramas like “The Bitter Case of the Baroness of Carini” in the 70s. Pagliai also worked as a voice actor, for example in the animated film “Cars 3”, in which he voiced Doc Hudson. In 1988, the actor received the Flaiano career award.
The love with Paola Gassman Ugo and Paola met during the years they both attended the drama academy in Rome. “I remember exactly how she was dressed: beautiful then, just as she is still today, with a few more years. I said to myself: what a beauty this girl is! I was also handsome, at the time, and had some admirers,” the actor recounted. Gassman, however, married another academy mate, Luciano Virgilio, with whom she had her first daughter Simona, and whose marriage lasted only a few months.
To Corriere della Sera, Paola Gassman recounted that after the end of her marriage, she met Pagliai by chance and they never left each other again. The two decided not to get married: “We met again after three years, I was shocked by my first marriage, which lasted only six months, and reluctant to celebrate another. Ugo was more reluctant than me. We told each other several times: we’ll do it later. Now it’s a superstitious matter: why should we change the state of things, given that so far it has gone so well?” The two have been together for over 50 years, and their love produced Tommaso.
