Giovanni Cianfriglia

Giovanni Cianfriglia — Biography

Giovanni Cianfriglia is remembered as one of the most prolific stunt performers of Italian genre cinema, working through the peplum and spaghetti western eras, and from the second half of the 1960s he also took leading roles under the stage name Ken Wood. His career ran from 1958 to 2000 and covered more than a hundred productions. He died in his hometown of Anzio on 30 October 2024, aged 89, of natural causes.

He entered film on Hercules (1958) as the body double of its star, Steve Reeves. After that he worked as a stuntman, often uncredited, in dozens of genre pictures. By the later 1960s his parts had grown, and as Ken Wood he headlined adventure films and spaghetti westerns; he was also billed under the names John Richmond, Phil Karson and Jody Wanger. His best-known role of the period was the title character of Superargo and the Faceless Giants (1968). He played Herbert in Castle of Blood, Blade in Kill Them All and Come Back Alone and Roy Elroy in Two Guns and a Coward, and Adiós, Sabata and Chuck Moll date from the same years.

In later years he appeared in adventure films such as Ironmaster (1983) and Tuareg – The Desert Warrior (1984), in which he played Mubarak, a Bedouin guide. With Le comiche (1990) he also dipped into comedy.