Italian Actor. Battaglia was discovered in a bar and was introduced to director Mario Soldati who cast him in Carlo Ponti’s ‘La Donna del Fiume’ (1955) with Sophia Loren. In a career that spanned five decades, he appeared in over 100 films, including several of Sergio Leone’s westerns. He starred alongside several of Hollywood’s leading ladies, such as Esther Williams and Liza Minnelli. Among films he appeared in were ‘Shatterhand’ (1963), ‘The Sheriff was a Lady’ (1964), ‘The Desperado Trail’ (1965), ‘Pyramid of the Sun Gods’ (1965), ‘Thunder at the Border’ (1966), ‘Black Jack’ (1968), ‘The Man With the Long Gun’ (1968), ‘Chapaqua’s Gold’ (1970), ‘A Fist Full of Dynamite’ (1971), ‘The Call of the Wild’ (1972), ‘White Fang’ (1973), ‘Challenge to White Fang’ (1974), ‘Nina’ (1976), ‘A Man Called Blade’ (1977) and ‘Buck at the Edge of Heaven’ (1991).    (bio by: Louis M.)