This article is about the Italian actor. For the Kodak creator, see George Eastman.

George Eastman, from his real name Luigi Montefiori, is an Italian actor and scenario writer who starred and wrote storylines in several Italian B-movies. Occasionally, he was a movie director and producer.

Biography

Luigi Montefiori was born August 16th 1942, in Genoa. According to some biography texts, he began to work as a graphic designer: after having done different jobs in advertising agencies, he would have gone in Rome in order to study and get a different occupation. Yet, when he was visiting his favorite nightclub, Luigi met cinematography experts and decided to become a comedian. Being tall, robust and athletic (he apparently also practiced wrestling), he had all the qualities to play secondary roles in westerns, which was a popular type of film at the time. Luigi then began his movie career in 1966 in the western My Name Is Pecos. Starting from his second movie, he took an Americanized pseudonym, George Histman, in order to boost his popularity. "Histman" would then soon become "Eastman": such as Terence Hill, Bud Spencer or Al Cliver, Luigi Montefiori shall then be essentially known under his pseudonym.

Being physically impressing and having a solid charisma on the screen, «Gigi» Montefiori quickly got more important roles: he starred as the main lead in Django Kills Softly (1967). Eastman shot a lot of movies, under his real name or his pseudonym, and appearred in films such as Django, Prepare a Coffin (1968), OSS 117 - Double Agent (1968) or Fellini's Fellini Satyricon (1969).

In 1974, he starred in Mario Bava's Rabid Dogs which production stayed frozen for twenty years due to copyright reasons. Despite a show-off attitude (which would only increase year after year), Montefiori apparently looked indeed scary as an insane gangster. Bava considered that he was "too smart to be an actor": he seemed to have been right because, even though he took a lot of brutal character roles, George Eastman was going to quickly show other talents apart from his acting qualities.

Starting from 1970, Luigi became a scenario writer as well, and got quite successful in that area. In 1975, he sold to Enzo G. Castellari the original storyline of Keoma, which is considered to be the last masterpiece of the spaghetti western genre.

Still, George Eastman's scenario writing career didn't achieve its heights at this time: he mostly worked in B-movie business and would become one of the main collaborators of Joe D’Amato . Being a regular actor in his "exploitation" movies, Eastman created plenty of storylines for D'Amato, and would be noticed in particular for writing The Emperor Caligula: The Untold Story (1981)or Porno Holocaust (1981). His regular acting appearances also made him one of the most familiar faces in Italian B-movies: he was seen as a perverted guru in Emanuelle Around the World (1977) or as a cannibal psychopath in Anthropophagus (a.k.a. The Grim Reaper)(1980).

This latter film is the one which will make George Eastman famous to the world: in this classic low-budget horror movie directed by Joe D’Amato, Luigi got noticed in a few scenes that remain classics of Italian gore. He is seen ripping a pregnant woman's stomach and then eating her fetus. The final scene is very memorable: George's character, being slashed by a pickaxe, ends with his own bowels in his hands and eat some before falling dead. This earned Eastman the nickname of "the man who eats himself".

After this highlight in a movie where he was both actor, scenario writer and co-producer, George Eastman would appear even more on the silver screen: in a time where Italian b-movies became campy, Eastman shall star in some of the most non-sensical of them.

He generally starred as the villain, where he did his show-off acting, grinning and rolling eyes: he was seen as a sadistic gang leader in Enzo G. Castellari's Bronx Warriors (1982), a fanatical exterminator in The New Barbarians (1982) or a caveman dictator in Ironmaster (1983). Getting from a camp to another, George became a big part of cinematographic ridicule.

More than a regular in Italian B-movies of the early 80's, he also appeared as «Big Ape», leader of the apemen in 2019: After the Fall of New York (1983). We can notice him in a richer production, King David (1985), biblical story starring Richard Gere and partly shot in Cinecittà. Eastman appears here Goliath as "Luigi Montefiori".

George/Luigi keeping up his scenario writing activities, tried to direct a movie by collaborating with Joe D’Amato on the post-apocalyptic flick 2020 Texas Gladiators (1982). In his spare time, he managed a restaurant in Rome.

In the late 80's, George Eastman acted much less. He tried to direct again with the horror movie Metamorphosis (1990) but producer Joe D’Amato getting too intrusive, it would create a conflict between them.

Having done his time with Italian B-movies, George Eastman (who got too assimilated to this period) retired as an actor and from now on only works as a scenario writer. He is now a decently-rated author in Italian television and only holds occasional roles.

External links

• IMDB page
• Nanarland Campy B-movie website which reviews several of Eastman's movies