Alex Giannini

Alex Giannini (born Alexander von Giannini, 6 June 1958, Northamptonshire; died 2 October 2015) was an English actor and singer who worked across stage, television, and film in comedy, musicals, and drama. His father was Roman-born and his mother was English; his father's employment with the European Commission meant Giannini received his education across England, Italy, and Luxembourg.

Before pursuing acting, Giannini performed as Sandy Fontaine, lead singer of the band Coast to Coast, which appeared on Top of the Pops before disbanding in 1982. His path toward the stage was shaped by his reading of Steven Berkoff's play East, after which he trained at East 15 Acting School.

Giannini's stage career spanned a range of theatrical forms. He played Harry the Horse in Guys and Dolls at the National Theatre, and appeared as Big Mac in Berkoff's revival of On the Waterfront at the Haymarket Theatre in 2009. London credits also included One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at the Garrick Theatre in 2004 and Journey's End at the Ambassadors Theatre in 2005. In 2003 he portrayed Dean Martin in Rat Pack Confidential at the Whitehall Theatre. From 2011, he toured the UK, Europe, and North and South America in Batman Live, playing both The Penguin and Commissioner Gordon.

His Broadway career ran from 1964 to 1999 and included appearances in Hamlet and Not About Nightingales. The latter, a long-lost Tennessee Williams play, was a 1999 original Broadway production in which Giannini performed; the run lasted five months.

On screen, his film appearances included In Love and War (1996), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Legend (2015), in which he played Antonio Caponigro, and London Has Fallen (2016). His television work encompassed Inspector Morse, Dalziel and Pascoe, The Musketeers, and The Bill, among others. He also appeared in a series of Italian television commercials for olive oil that ran for five years.

Giannini married Linda Drew in an early marriage that was later dissolved. In 1998 he married Jennifer Secombe, daughter of Harry Secombe, and had three stepchildren; Jennifer Secombe died in 2019. Giannini died of a heart attack at the age of 57, an hour before he was scheduled to appear on stage at the Theatre Royal, Plymouth, in the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of Mack and Mabel.