Son of Tell

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Flynnstones,

until recently very little was known about child actor Guido Martufi, who played Errol‘s son Jimmy/Gemmy in “The Story of William Tell“.

Little Guido won over Jack Cardiff in a casting, which saw him competing against Flynn‘s real life son Sean.

At 12 years he recently had completed “I Vitelloni“, the Fellini film prior to “La Strada“.

As it turns out this child prodigy had already done a tour to Hollywood before, starring in “Westward the Women“ by “Beau Geste“-director Willam A. Wellman and in Fred Zinnemann‘s “Teresa“.

He would go on after the missed appleshot to act in Selznick‘s remake of  “Farewell to the Arms“ and appear in some comedies of Totó, the Italian Charlie Chaplin.

Then at age 20 he would abruptly stop and never act again.

In an Italian interview in 1999 he promised a biography by an American film journalist, which by the sheer size of his work would have made for the slimmest book east of the English Kamasutra.

Enjoy,

 

 

 

 

 

— shangheinz