Lion of the Via Veneto

The unofficial mayor of Rome's Via Veneto is Lionel Stander, a growling, grimacing, profane old lion with the plumage of a peacock and the unabashed appetites of a goat. As he fanfaronades along, groups of young Roman cognoscenti crowd round him and cry "Ciao, Lionello!" As he gleefully claims, "Some of the best-looking broads in Rome call me and ask 'Can I come sleep with you, baby?' "

At any glance, the burly, 62-year-old character actor seems an unlikely object of continental adulation or incontinent adoration. He is Bronx-born and irredeemably ugly; his voice has all the soothing qualities of a tugboat whistle. His brocade jackets and frilled shirts merely reinforce the impression of 19th century decadence. As a performer, Stander has only one style: the anthropoidal comic-heavy. Nor have two decades on Hollywood's unwritten blacklist enhanced his marketability. But Stander, who left the U.S. in 1964, has achieved extraordinary film success in Europe. He won raves as the mordant mobster in Roman Polanski's Cul-de-Sac (1966). In Italy these days, no spaghetti western is complete without his brutal snarl. He will star in four pictures this year, produce a fifth himself and is currently averaging $5,000 a week. Rome's feline newspapers may mock him as "the world's oldest hippie," but Slander's fans have made him something of a European folk hero.

Everybody's Pal. Lionel's vita has not always been so dolce. After years of bumming in Greenwich Village, he became, as he recalls it, "a half-assed journalist for Hearst. But they fired me because I spent too much time at Lindy's and Stillman's Gym." He made his stage debut in an off-Broadway production of E.E. Cummings' Him. Lionel appeared on radio with Fred Allen and Fanny Brice. Then he drifted into movies, where he scored as a poet--of all things--in The Scoundrel (1934). His face (complete with unmatching eyes) and gargantuan physique made him a natural for the type of comic semi-heavy (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, A Star Is Born) so ubiquitous in the '30s. "Everybody's pal, that was me. If I had a romance, it had to be funny."

Stander didn't find anything funny about studio attitudes toward his offscreen romances (which eventually led to five marriages). "They treated you like a piece of meat. If they didn't like you making it with a particular broad, they'd send some hood around to threaten you with castration."

In the 1930s, Stander helped organize the Screen Actors Guild, raised money for the Spanish Loyalists, fought for release of the Scottsboro boys. "I was branded a nigger-loving Communist and every other red spot you can mention," he says. "I didn't work again for a major studio."

During the McCarthy era, he was one of the first actors to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. His performance has become legend. While many of his colleagues gave nervous, penitent testimony, Lionel roared into the hearings with a blonde on each arm and proceeded to denounce the committee in sulfurous terms.

Thereafter Stander did not play in another American film until 1963, when Director Tony Richardson wangled him a part in The Loved One. He had a massive heart attack that same year, but it has not slowed him down. "I think my troubles are finally over," he says. "Just in case they ain't, I'm living it up as much as a guy my age can do."

He lives in a terraced penthouse off the Via Veneto. His proudest possessions are an awesome round bed with black satin sheets and an awesome American blonde named Jill Purcell, who refers to herself as "Lionel's Girl Friday--and Girl Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday." She doesn't even mind that Lionel occasionally entertains local talent, she says, "as long as they make their own beds and help out in the kitchen."

Despite his bizarre emigre life, Lionel sounds nostalgic about the U.S. "It's nervous, violent, tough and exacting. The young artists there are managing to survive and make their statements." Would he return? "No, thanks," he says. "You can't work and make out in New York or Hollywood. This is the place for me--Viva Roma!"

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