ROME – Icon of the spaghetti western, George Hilton, died in Rome on Sunday at the age of 85.

“Our beloved George has left us today,” read a Facebook statement from Hilton’s partner Gabriela, who announced he had died after an undisclosed illness. “He did his best to recover, he wanted to be close to his family, to the people he loved and that includes you, all the fans that he has all over the world. Unfortunately, all his efforts weren’t enough.”

Born and raised in Uruguay, later naturalized Italian, the actor who was famous for his performances in numerous spaghetti westerns, had just days ago received the Golden Plaque for the Luciano Martino Career-Award, named after the producer and friend with whom he made several films.

Born in Montevideo on July 16, 1934, Hilton began his career working on radio. In 1955 he moved to Argentina, where he adopted the pseudonym of Jorge Hilton and began appearing in various photo-novels and in film productions for the country's domestic market.

In 1963 Hilton arrived in Italy following in the footsteps of other South American actors, such as Jorge Rigaud and Alberto de Mendoza, attracted by the flourishing Roman film industry. After anglicising his name to George, he took the lead role in the pirate film, Il Corsaro Nero Nell’Isola Del Tesoro (1965). In the same year he played 007 in a comedy spoof of the 1964 James Bond film Goldfinger, entitled Two Mafiosi Against Goldginger.

He was launched into the Spaghetti Western genre by director Lucio Fulci with the dark, violent film Massacre Time (1966), alongside Franco Nero. The following year, he took part in seven spaghetti westerns, fuelling his fame internationally and gaining him a good following, particularly in Spain.

Hilton became one of the greatest stars of Italian cinema together with Terence Hill, Franco Nero and Giuliano Gemma. His most famous characters are thought to be the eponymous gunslinger from the Halleluja films and that of Tresette, created together with director Giuliano Carnimeo.

He also dabbled in other genres, from drama to war films, eventually arriving at murder mystery with Romolo Guerrieri's film The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968). Gifted with a languid and gloomy charm, the actor adapted himself perfectly to the genre therefore was called on to interpret some of the most well-known titles of the category including: The Colors of the Dark (1972), directed by Sergio Martino and The Case of the Bloody Iris (1972) by Giuliano Carnimeo, always supported by Edwige Fenech. He also participated in detective films (Double Game, 1977), comedies (Taxi Girl, 1977) and sci-fi (The Atlantis Interceptors, 1983), but from the eighties his appearances became more and more sporadic. In those years he worked on several films for TV (Dinner with a Vampire, 1988), TV series (College, 1990) and miniseries (Tre addiì, 1999).

He had returned to the cinema for the sequel to Abbronzatissimi, Abbronzatissimi 2 – Un Anno Dopo (1993), where he played the aged fiancé of Bea (Valeria Marini). Finally, in 2007 he took a part in the film Natale in Crociera, by Neri Parenti, in the role of the ship's captain.

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