Giannini attended Rome’s Academy of Dramatic Arts. In the theatre, he came to prominence working with Giuseppe Patroni Griffi in 1963 (In memoria di una signora amica) and with Franco Zeffirelli the following year (Romeo and Juliet). However it was only in 1967 that he became a popular figure, playing the lead role in the TV version of “David Copperfield”, adapted from the Charles Dickens novel by Anton Giulio Majano. On the big screen, he made a name for himself with Drama of jealousy (Dramma della gelosia, tutti i particolari in cronaca) (1970) by Ettore Scola, where he began to outline that high-voltage, mercurial sub-proletariat character that he was to successfully refine in subsequent films...