Trivia

This first black person to win a best acting award at the Cannes Film Festival.

An American soldier, he took part in the liberation of Italy during World War II. He rose to the rank of Captain in the U.S. Army's Corps of Engineers. He fell in love with the country, stayed there, and made much of his acting career there, playing Italian cinema's stock colored man.

Earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1937.

Awarded the Victory Medal World War II.

A U.S. Army veteran of World War II, having served with the U.S. Army's 92nd Infantry Division.

An engineer with no acting experience, he was stationed in Italy when director Luigi Zampa chose him for To Live in Peace (1947), for which he needed an African-American actor who could also play the trumpet. Encouraged by the success of the movie, Kitzmiller kept pursuing an acting career with several noted European directors. He won the Best Actor prize at the 1957 Cannes Film Festival for Valley of Peace (1956), but his career rapidly began to decline shortly after. Depressed, he sunk into alcoholism, which led to his premature death at age 51.