Thursday, February 16, 2012

Identifying the TEN GLADIATORS

Identifying the actors who played the TEN GLADIATORS from the series of 3 films is a difficult thing to do. The cast changed slightly between the first and second films; the cast is credited mostly with aliases; IMDb info is incomplete (Romano Giomini is not listed for the 3 films) and most of the gladiators remain nameless in the stories/scripts so not much to go by. Here's the closest I've tried to figure out who's who.

The three films are: THE TEN GLADIATORS; SPARTACUS & THE TEN GLADIATORS and TRIUMPH OF THE TEN GLADIATORS.

Uploaded to the SPECIAL FEATURES page


Dan Vadis as Rocca

Pietro Torrisi

Salvatore Borgese

 Jeff Cameron (aka Giovanni Scarciofolo)

Aldo Canti

Enzo Fiermonte

Romano Giomini

Frank Oliveras

Emilio Messina

Armando Bottin


From THE TEN GLADIATORS only

3 actors from THE TEN GLADIATORS that didn't make it in the 2 following films. Not pictured here is Aldo Cristiani.

Pino Mattei

Giancarlo Bastianoni


The entire TEN GLADIATORS cast from the 2 sequels (or prequels)

5 comments:

  1. Bill S.February 16, 2012 at 8:47 PM

    I've always enjoyed this series of films, so I appreciate your taking the time to do this research. It's got me wanting to watch the films again, which is always a good thing! Dan Vadis is always enjoyable IMHO---he was unique among peplum stars.

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  2. jimFebruary 17, 2012 at 12:43 AM

    And, as the last picture shows, Dan Vadis was easily the mightiest of all the Ten Gladiators (& more than a few Hercules', too. lol)

    Was sorry to read that Dan died so young (49), of an apparent drug overdose.

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  3. Steven LesterFebruary 17, 2012 at 7:44 AM

    And Dan wasn't beyond enduring a bit of pain for the part. That hanging off of the tree limb by one arm must have hurt, no matter how strong your muscles were. The first picture of him shows him twisting in the wind, showing a great back as he turned around, and also showing that there wasn't any bracing to help him out. I've always wondered how he got to look so good. He wasn't a bodybuilder particularly, was he? At least, he wasn't in the Weider or the Laurie camps anyway.

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  4. S.R.OrsulakFebruary 17, 2012 at 4:54 PM

    Everyone of these actors I have seen in many Spaghetti Westerns, and EURO Spy & War movies. The guys that I have seen the most of are Giancarlo Bastianoni, Frank Oliveras, Enzo Fiermonte, Salvatore Borgese(This guy played in everything besides PEP and I think he had a nice little career going). Seen him in a bunch of S.W.'s and I have him in several War Films most notably THE COMMANDOS & FIVE FOR HELL among others.

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  5. PEPLUM cinemaFebruary 17, 2012 at 7:02 PM

    Salvatore had a very good career which lasted up until the 1980s. Pietro sorta disappeared a bit by the 1970s but resurfaced with several Sword & Sorcery films in the 1980s.

    Steven, I believe he was a bodybuilder but not a pro. There are several photos of Vadis with Gordon Mitchell lifting up girls a la bodybuilders. Vadis was mostly impressive because aside from Peter Lupus, he was the tallest at 6'4" and yet he was very agile for a big guy.

    Django, glad you enjoyed this mini retrospective.

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