Borromel, Charles

Post by **PeplumParadise** » 27/06/2023, 12:05

Stradivari (1988) credited, as Pescaroli

Post by **PeplumParadise** » 27/06/2023, 12:08

La casa delle anime erranti (1989 TV movie) credited, as Eraoldo Covatta's Ghost

Post by **PeplumParadise** » 27/06/2023, 12:10

La ciociara (1989 TV movie) credited, as German officer leading search

Post by **PeplumParadise** » 27/06/2023, 12:12

La putain du roi (1990) credited as playing "1st warden", but not found after multiple searches

Post by **PeplumParadise** » 27/06/2023, 12:41

Una vita scellerata (1990 TV mini-series) Charles is credited in episodes 1 and 2 (of 3), as Officer, but I was only able to identify him in episode 2.

He is also credited in the shorter feature film version, but again I was unable to find him.

Episode 1, credited but not found

Episode 2

Feature film, credited but not found

Thanks to Johan for help in finding him here

Post by **PeplumParadise** » 27/06/2023, 12:47

Additional biographical information

by Johan Melle

I don't know where the name Borromel comes from, but it's true that the similar Borromeo is an Italian family name. It could be that the family had immigrated from Italy originally, but I don't know. As far as I know, Charles was born in and grew up in Scotland.

I've not been able to find out much about his life prior to going to Italy except that he did some theater work in England. He has some credits with the Royal Shakespeare Company during 1959-60 - all apparently minor roles. See here: https://theatricalia.com/person/2sw/charles-borromel

The Royal Shakespeare Company's official website actually has some pictures from their 1959 production of "Coriolanus", in which Charles appeared, up on their website: https://www.rsc.org.uk/coriolanus/past-productions

Specifically, this picture comes with the following caption: "The Volscian senators (Charles Borromel, Norman Henry, Donald Layne-Smith) order Tullus Aufidius (Anthony Nicholls) to wage war against Caius Martius (later Coriolanus, played by Laurence Olivier)."

So I presume Charles is the one on the far left. Doesn't resemble him all that much, but he's clearly wearing a wig and some heavy stage make-up...

As for further biographical details, we have the comments that dubbing actor/writer/director Ted Rusoff gave about him when interviewed for Video Watchdog #159 in 2010:

Charlie Borromel was an elusive, hard-to-get-a-hold of personality. He was a pretty good actor and a very useful dubber. He lived on a boat in Ostia, and boats and ships and everything technical about them were obsessions. He had a part in a period picture involving ships and he got on everyone's nerves so much by criticizing the draft of the vessels, by yakking about longitude and latitude and windward and leeward and prows and poopdecks and such that the director finally screamed "E il cinema dove lo mettiamo?" which was as polite way as possible of saying "What the fuck has all this got to do with shooting a movie?" He wasn't fired, stayed on and finished the part, but he was held up to ridicule and the story followed him. He stayed on for a couple of years and then disappeared. Whether the movie-ship-episode had anything to do with his disappearance, I have no idea.

How much of that is embellished to make for a funny story is hard to say, though.

I have also asked dubbing actor Rodd Dana about Charles, and this is what he had to say:

Charly did some dubbing but had a slight Scottish brogue that was only suited for certain characters. He was also a long-time 'consort' to Sally Amarù. They lived for a lot of years on his boat in Ostia. Don’t know what happened to him. I think when they broke up, he returned to Scotland.

At least they are both in agreement about him living on a boat in Ostia. Sally Amarù, btw, was a dubbing actress who was active in the 1960s and 70s.

There's a guy who has a blog called Essays and Diversions that apparently was friends with Borromel. In a post dedicated to Fellini, he mentions him as appearing in some of Fellini's films: https://www.richardpgibbs.org/2015/05/f ... llini.html
No specific titles mentioned, though, but maybe Casanova...?

And in this earlier post he makes a reference to Borromel directing a music video: https://www.richardpgibbs.org/2014/09/d ... discs.html