ROANOKE TIMES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, December 27, 1994                   TAG: 9412270126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: ROME                                LENGTH: Short


`SOUTH PACIFIC' STAR ROSSANO BRAZZI DIES

Rossano Brazzi, the Italian actor who made it big in Hollywood as the star of the 1958 classic ``South Pacific,'' is dead at age 78.

Brazzi died Saturday in a Rome hospital from an undisclosed virus that affected his nervous system, the ANSA news agency reported, citing sources close to the Italian actor's family.

Brazzi, who also directed films, appeared in more than 200 movies, most of them shot in the United States.

His first Hollywood appearance was in ``Little Women'' (1949). But it was ``The Barefoot Contessa'' (1954), featuring Ava Gardner and Humphrey Bogart, that established him in the roles of handsome heartbreaker and aristocrat.

Another 1954 hit was ``Three Coins in the Fountain.''

``Rossano Brazzi will certainly be remembered as one of the few Italian actors known in America as well,'' Carlo Verdone, an Italian actor and director, was quoted as saying by the Italian news agency AGI.

- Associated Press



 by CNB