Gianni Garko, often billed as John Garko and occasionally Gary Hudson, is an Italian actor who found fame as a leading man in 1960s Spaghetti Westerns. He is perhaps best known for his lead role as Sartana, starting with the first official film If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death and starring in four sequels as this character.
Early life and career
Garko was born in Zara, he moved from Zara to Trieste, and later Rome to attend University and Drama School. His first prominent film role was a small but important part in the Oscar nominated Kapò. He continued to play parts in several Italian productions including sword and sandal epics such as and Mole Men Against the Son of Hercules. His big break came when he had a role in Il Compagno Don Camillo.
Garko became a star in Europe in the 1966 spaghetti western filmBlood at Sundown. In this movie, he played an antagonist named El General Sartana. In 1968 he played an unrelated protagonist also named Sartana in If You Meet Sartana Pray for Your Death. The movie was an immediate box office success, and led to four official follow-up Sartana films, with Garko starring in the first three of them: I Am Sartana Your Angel of Death, Have a Good Funeral, My Friend... Sartana Will Pay, and Light the Fuse... Sartana Is Coming. Other notable westerns Garko starred in were $10,000 Blood Money as an unofficial Django, Vengeance is Mine/$100,000 for a Massacre, The Price of Death, They Call Him Cemetery alongside William Berger as well as a supporting role in Bad Man's River with Lee Van Cleef. During this time he achieved considerable fame in Germany, Italy, and Spain. Outside of the western genre, Garko starred in Five for Hell with frequent co-star Klaus Kinski, a small role in Waterloo as the brave and energetic French artillery commander Antoine Drouot, and The Heroes, both with Rod Steiger.
Post Spaghetti Western career
Like many of his contemporaries, his star diminished as the spaghetti western genre began to decline. He was still able to get roles in several successful Giallo and horror movies, sex comedies, and Poliziotteschi movies. Among these are Cold Eyes of Fear, The Night of the Devils, Il Boss, The Flower with the Petals of Steel, Sette note in nero, Joy of Flying, Graf Dracula in Oberbayern, Star Odyssey, Encounters in the Deep, Hercules, and Monster Shark. After appearing in as Tony Cellini in the episode "Dragon's Domain", Garko concentrated more on television, theatre, and TV commercials. Although established in Europe, he remained little known in America. In an interview, Garko mentioned that he had turned down the lead role in Pretty Baby with Brooke Shields.
