Maurizio Merli

Though it can be said that he only gained fame as an actor because he bore such a heavy resemblance to Italian actor Franco Nero, Maurizio Merli was a very versatile and charismatic leading man in Italian cinema throughout the 1970's. His first appearance was in the Luchino Visconti film The Leopard (1963) as an uncredited extra. Throughout the 60's and early 70's, the young Merli kept a low profile and remained a fairly minor player in the Italian films. His major breakthrough came with director Tonino Ricci, who was to direct an unofficial sequel to Lucio Fulci's White Fang (1973) without the benefit of its star, Franco Nero. Ricci realized that casting Merli in the lead would fool the viewing audience into thinking they were seeing Nero and hence an authentic White Fang adventure. The subsequent film Zanna Bianca alla riscossa (1975) worked well enough for Marino Girolami and Fabrizio De Angelis to cast Merli as the lead in the crime drama Violent City (1975) a year later. Much like