Luca Giorgio Barbareschi (born 28 July 28 1956) is an Italian actor, filmmaker, businessman, and politician. He is known for playing Mark Tomaso in the 1980 Italian horror film Cannibal Holocaust. He also represented Sardinia in the Italian Chamber of Deputies between 2008 and 2014.
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Early life and education
Barbareschi was born on 28 July 1956 in Montevideo, Uruguay, to Francesco Saverio, an engineer and former World War II partisan from Milan, and Maria Antonietta Hirsch, an economist of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. His parents divorced when he was six and he moved to Milan, where he attended the Leo XIII Institute during the 1960s. In 2008, he alleged that a Jesuit priest at the Institute had sexually abused him between the ages of eight and thirteen.
Career
Theater and film
Barbareschi studied acting with Alessandro Fersen and began his professional career in 1970 as an assistant director to Virginio Puecher at the Teatro di Verona. He spent a year as an assistant director at the Lyric Opera of Chicago before moving to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City under Frank Corsaro. He later enrolled in the Actors Studio, where he studied for four years. While at the Actors Studio, Barbareschi was cast as cameraman Mark Tomaso in the film Cannibal Holocaust, directed by Ruggero Deodato. The film was controversial for its graphic violence and realistic murder scenes which were initially speculated to be genuine, although contrary to rumours Deodato and the film's producers were never charged with murder. Deodato himself has claimed that the actors who portrayed the murdered characters – including Barbareschi – were contracted to stay out of the public eye for a year after the film's release. The existence of these contracts was disputed by Carl Gabriel Yorke but confirmed by Francesca Ciardi, both of whom co-starred on the film with Barbareschi.
Politics
In 2008, Barbareschi was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies as a member of Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right party The People of Freedom. In 2010, he joined Gianfranco Fini's new party Future and Freedom with 32 other deputies and 10 senators. He left parliament in 2013.
Activism
As a child sexual abuse survivor, Barbareschi has advocated for the protection of victims of pedophilia. He established the Luca Barbareschi Foundation for this purpose, and he worked to pass an anti-pedophilia law while serving in parliament.
Controversies
On 11 June 2012, during an interview for the program Le Iene, Barbareschi attacked journalist Filippo Roma and his cameraman, and stole Roma's cellphone. He attacked Roma again two months later in Filicudi. In 2022, Barbareschi was accused of homophobia after remarking that "the homosexual mafia is the problem" during a speech on April 30 in Sutri. He later claimed the comments were taken out of context and were intended as a joke, and that he himself had had homosexual experiences. Barbareschi has defended director Roman Polanski, with whom he has worked several times as a producer, against his sexual abuse conviction, claiming the case against him is due to "political correctness".
Personal life
Marriages and relationships
Barbareschi has been married twice. His first wife was Patrizia Fachini, with whom he has three daughters: Beatrice, Eleonora and Angelica. His second wife is Elena Monorchio, the daughter of former State Accountant General Andrea Monorchio; they married on June 20, 2015 and have two children: Maddalena (b. 2010) and Francesco Saverio (b. 2012). Barbareschi was previously in a seven-year-long relationship with actress Lucrezia Lante della Rovere.
Religion
Barbareschi practices Judaism.
Filmography
Cinema
1977 – Ultimo mondo cannibale
1979 – From Corleone to Brooklyn
1980 – Cannibal Holocaust as Mark
1983 – Dream of a Summer Night
1984 – Bank Clerks
1986 – Monte Napoleone
1987 – Private Affairs
1988 – Bye Bye Baby
1990 – In the Name of the Sovereign People
1991 – L'amico arabo
1992 – The Blonde
1992 – Obiettivo indiscreto
1994 – La delegazione
1995 – La tenda nera
1995 – La famiglia Ricordi
1995 – Bits and Pieces
1996 – Ardena
1999 – The Frenchman's Son
2002 – Il Trasformista
2008 – The International
2010 – We Believed
2013 – Something Good (director, actor)
2019 – Dolceroma (producer)
2019 – An Officer and a Spy (producer)
2021 – Appunti di un venditore di donne (producer)
Television
1992 – Questo è amore
1992 – That's Amore
1997 – Trenta righe per un delitto
1998 – Cronaca nera
1999 – Jesus
2000 – Greed
2002 – Giorni da leone
2003 – Una vita in regalo
2004 – Rivoglio i miei figli
2005 – Nebbie e delitti
2005 – Les Rois maudits
2006 – Giorni da leone 2
2006 – La profezia dei templari
2007 – Nebbie e delitti 2
2009 – Nebbie e delitti 3
2012 – Nero Wolfe (producer)
2013 – Le Iene con Botte da Orbi
2015 – Pietro Mennea - La freccia del sud (fiction)
2022 – Il grande gioco (producer)
Theatre
2004 – Amadeus
2006 – Il Sogno del Principe di Salina, l'Ultimo Gattopardo
