Bartolomeo Pagano

Bartolomeo Pagano

Bartolomeo Pagano, known as Maciste (Genoa, 27 September 1878 – Genoa, 24 June 1947). A stevedore (camallo) in the port of Genoa, he was chosen by a special committee created to find an actor with the characteristics of a gentle giant to include in the cast of Cabiria, a silent film shot in 1914 by Giovanni Pastrone and scripted by (among others) Gabriele D’Annunzio. Many other films followed, including Maciste alpino, Maciste innamorato, etc. Maciste became famous as the performer of a series of films from 1914 to 1926, both Italian and German productions, always playing the positive role of the gentle giant. He was one of the highest-paid Italian film actors of the early years of Italian cinema, earning up to 600,000 lire a year. His last appearance was in Giuditta e Oloferne in 1929. After this film, having contracted diabetes and no longer able to perform acrobatic roles, he retired definitively to his little villa in Sant'Ilario, purchased with the proceeds from Cabiria. Until the end he maintained good physical as well as intellectual shape (woe if the newspapers were not on the table in the morning). He died on Saint John's Day while taking his usual walk along the main street of Sant'Ilario, struck by cardiac arrest, leaving a memory that endures to this day.

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Maciste