Bud Spencer (born October 31, 1929 in Naples) is a famous Italian actor, known for his height at 6' 4 3/4" (195 cm) and his past roles in spaghetti westerns. Growing from a successful swimmer in his youth, he later achieved a degree in law, and has registered several patents.
Spencer was born Carlo Pedersoli at Santa Lucia, an historical rione of the city of Naples. He married Maria Amato in 1960, with whom he had three children: Giuseppe (1961), Christine (1962) and Diamante (1972).
Spencer established Mistral Air in 1984, but left it to buy a textile mill that produced clothes for children.
A successful swimmer in his youth, Spencer was the first Italian to swim the 100 m freestyle in less than one minute. He achieved this on 19 September 1950, when he swam the 100 m in 59.5 s. In the 1951 Mediterranean Games, he won a silver medal in the same 100m freestyle event.
Spencer participated in the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, Finland, reaching the semi-finals in the 100 m freestyle (58.8 s heats, 58.9 s semi final). Four years later, in Melbourne, he also entered the semi-finals in the same category (58.5 s heat, 59.0 s semi final). As a water polo player, he won the Italian Championship in 1954, with S.S. Lazio. His swimming career ended abruptly in 1957.
On 17 January 2005 he was awarded with the Caimano d'oro (Gold Caiman) by the Italian Swimming Federation. On 24 January 2007, he received from the Italian Swimming Federation's president Paolo Barelli, swim and water polo coach diplomas.
Spencer's first movie role was that of a member of the Praetorian guard in Quo Vadis, a film shot in Italy, in 1951. During the 1950s and part of the 1960s, Spencer appeared in some Italian films but "his career was strictly minor league until the late 1960s."
Spencer then met Terence Hill, with whom he made a large number of Italian Westerns and other films together, including (named using their most common US titles):
Many of these have alternate titles, depending upon the country and distributor. Some have longer Italian versions that were edited for release abroad. These films gathered popularity for both actors, especially in Europe. A claim appears on IMDB that they made a total of 19 films together. Those extra two films (besides those listed above) might be two German versions of "God Forgives... I Don't!" and "Boot Hill" which were completely redubbed, recut and retitled to tie into the success of their later comedy westerns.
Spencer also wrote the complete or partial screenplay for some of his movies. His fan base is particularly large in Europe. His feature film career slowed down after 1983, shifting more toward television. In the 1990s he acted in the TV action-drama "Extralarge".
In 2005, Pedersoli entered politics, unsuccessfully standing as regional counselor in Lazio for the Forza Italia party. Spencer has stated: "In my life, I've done everything. There are only three things I haven't been - a ballet dancer, a jockey and a politician. Given that the first two jobs are out of the question, I'll throw myself into politics." The opposition criticised him for engaging in "politica spettacolo" ("showbiz politics").
(in the 1980s, he was credited as Carlo Pedersoli)
