Finding the elusive Roberto Messina

The elusive Roberto, along with his brother Emilio, in a very brief appearance in COLOSSUS OF THE ARENA

Roberto Messina is an Italian actor/stuntman who appeared in dozens and dozens of productions from 1961 to 1992  and like the majority of actors of the era he started in PEPLUM films. His brother, Emilio, is a true PEPLUM star having appeared in major roles in more than one production. But finding Roberto is something different. I knew how he looked like in his films from the 1970s but could never find him in a Sword & Sandal flick. The Italian film companies didn't seem to care much about who got credit and didn't get it. As far as I know now Roberto's appearances probably lasted no more than 10 seconds in every PEPLUM films he made (no wonder I couldn't find him) and sometimes got credit while his more famous brother Emilio got as much screen time or even more screen time and he didn't get credit. Go figure. Anyway, after a long and arduous search here are some of Roberto's (fleeting) appearances.

Here's Roberto next to Jeff Cameron in SPARTACUS & THE 10 GLADIATORS. He appears for about 10 seconds in this film.

Roberto in MACISTE - GLADIATOR OF SPARTA. Emilio is also in this film but he's uncredited at IMDb. This sequence was reused in THE MAGNIFICENT GLADIATOR but Roberto's scene was cut but not Emilio's.