Terence Hill

Terence Hill, born Mario Girotti on 29 March 1939 in Venice, is an Italian actor, film director, screenwriter and producer renowned for his starring roles in action and comedy cinema, particularly in partnership with Bud Spencer. Rising from child stardom to international popularity, he became one of Italy’s highest-paid actors during the 1970s. Hill achieved global fame through comic and traditional spaghetti Westerns, including adaptations of Karl May’s frontier novels. Among his best-known films are They Call Me Trinity (1970), Trinity Is Still My Name (1971)—which became the highest-grossing Italian film of its era—and My Name Is Nobody (1973) with Henry Fonda. In later life he enjoyed major success on Italian television as the titular priest-detective in the long-running Rai 1 series Don Matteo (2000–2022).

Early Life

Hill was born to a German mother, Hildegard Girotti (née Thieme), from Dresden, and an Italian father, Girolamo Girotti, who worked as a chemist. He spent much of his childhood in Lommatzsch, Saxony, remaining there until the end of the Second World War. His multicultural upbringing would later help shape his international career.

Early Career as a Child Actor

Hill’s entry into cinema came unexpectedly at the age of twelve when director Dino Risi discovered him at a swimming meet. He debuted in Risi’s Vacanze col gangster (1951), playing the gang leader Gianni. Throughout the early 1950s he appeared in supporting roles in Voice of Silence (1953), Too Young for Love (1953), It Happened in the Park (1953), Golden Vein (1954), The Abandoned (1955) and Folgore Division (1955). By the mid-1950s he had graduated to leading roles in films such as Guaglione (1956) and Lazzarella (1957), displaying an early versatility that allowed him to move between drama, comedy and romance.
He continued to develop his profile with roles in Anna of Brooklyn (1958), The Sword and the Cross (1958), Il padrone delle ferriere (1959), Hannibal (1959)—where he first appeared alongside Carlo Pedersoli, later Bud Spencer—and other features across the late 1950s and early 1960s. A significant early credit was in Luchino Visconti’s epic The Leopard (1963), in which he played a suitor vying unsuccessfully for Claudia Cardinale’s character. Around this time he studied classical literature at university for three years.

Work in Germany

By 1964 Hill had returned to Germany, where he featured in several Heimatfilme, adventure films and Westerns inspired by Karl May’s popular frontier novels. His German-language filmography includes Last of the Renegades (1964), Amongst Vultures (1964), The Oil Prince (1965), Old Surehand (1965), Shots in 3/4 Time (1965), Duel at Sundown (1965), Call of the Forest (1965), and the two-part epic Die Nibelungen (1965–1967). This period established him as a bankable European actor across multiple markets.

Partnership with Bud Spencer

Hill returned to Italy in 1967 to star opposite Caterina Caselli in Io non protesto, io amo, before beginning his legendary screen partnership with Bud Spencer in Giuseppe Colizzi’s spaghetti Western God Forgives… I Don’t! (1967). For international marketing purposes he adopted the stage name Terence Hill, selecting it from a list devised by producers.
The film became the top Italian hit of its year, launching the Hill–Spencer duo to global stardom. Hill followed this with The Crazy Kids of the War (1967), Django, Prepare a Coffin (1968), and reunions with Spencer in Ace High (1968) and Boot Hill (1969). In 1970 the team achieved enormous success with the comedy Western They Call Me Trinity, a film that helped redefine the spaghetti Western with its light-hearted tone. An even greater triumph came with the sequel Trinity Is Still My Name (1971), which broke domestic box-office records and enjoyed wide American distribution.

International Film Career

Hill continued alternating between roles with and without Spencer during the 1970s. He starred in Blackie the Pirate (1971), Man of the East (1972), All the Way Boys (1972) and the celebrated My Name Is Nobody (1973), his personal favourite. The latter film, co-starring Henry Fonda and based on an idea by Sergio Leone, further solidified his international appeal.
Other notable collaborations with Spencer during this decade include Watch Out, We’re Mad! (1974), Two Missionaries (1974), Odds and Evens (1978) and I’m for the Hippopotamus (1979). Hill also branched into English-language cinema, appearing in Mr. Billion (1977) for 20th Century Fox and in the French-American Foreign Legion adventure March or Die (1977) opposite Gene Hackman and Catherine Deneuve. Despite his fluency in both Italian and English, Hill was often dubbed by voice actors until the late 1970s, after which he dubbed his own English performances.
During this period he also produced and starred in Org (1979), demonstrating an interest in experimental filmmaking alongside mainstream roles.

Later Career and Television Success

Hill and Spencer continued to collaborate into the early 1980s, starring in popular comedies such as Who Finds a Friend Finds a Treasure (1981) and Go for It! (1983). In subsequent years Hill increasingly focused on Italian television and directing. His most acclaimed later role is that of Don Matteo Bondini, a perceptive and morally driven priest-detective in Don Matteo, a Rai 1 series that ran for over two decades from 2000 to 2022. The show became one of Italy’s most beloved programmes, reinforcing Hill’s place in contemporary Italian popular culture.
Beyond acting, Hill has continued to work sporadically as a director and producer, maintaining a strong following among fans of European Westerns and action-comedies.