Tullio Moneta

Tullio Moneta (b. Rijeka, Croatia, 09/05/1937 - d. San Severino, Italy, 31/03/2022) was an actor and mercenary soldier. Also credited as Tulio Moneta and Tulio Monetta.

Biography

Tullio Moneta was born in the port city of Fiume (now Rijeka) in the former Yugoslavia. The son of Italian-speaking parents, after the end of World War II the family crossed the border into Italy. There they settled in Macerata, where he attended secondary school and excelled in various sports, which subsequently included touring with a professional basketball team. He studied commerce in Perugia and in 1960 was working for a French company in Freetown in Sierra Leone. In 1963 he came to South Africa an did a variety of piecemeal jobs before landing up in the Belgian Congo (today’s Democratic Republic of the Congo) where he joined a group of mercenaries who were helping to quell the Simba uprising. This brought him to the attention of Col. Mike Hoare of 5 Commando ANC, who led a mercenary unit during the Congo crisis. In 1981 he was Hoare’s second-in-command at the time of the failed Seychelles coup, which resulted in him receiving a prison sentence when the group arrived back in South Africa.

He became a South African citizen in 1969 and at one stage he owned the Top of the Town restaurant in Braamfontein. In between his mercenary activities he became an occasional actor. A tall and imposing man, he usually played heavies, including mercenaries and even a terrorist. When Mike Hoare became military and technical advisor on the feature film The Wild Geese (1978), he brought in Moneta as his assistant.

Films

1970 – Taxi! (Director: Joe Stewardson), 1970 – Mister Kingstreet’s War / Heroes Die Hard (uncredited) (Director: Percival Rubens), 1970 – Three Bullets… for a Long Gun (Director: Peter Henkel), 1971 – Flying Squad / Vengeance Cops (uncredited) (Director: Ivan Hall), 1971 – Die Banneling (Director: David Millin), 1971 – The Weekend (Director: Keith G. van der Wat), 1971 – Gold Squad (Director: Ivan Hall), 1971 – The Men from the Ministry (uncredited) (Director: Tom Meehan), 1973 – Aanslag op Kariba (Director: Ivan Hall), 1973 – They Call me Lucky (Director: Peter Henkel), 1975 – Kniediep… (Directors: Roy Sargeant & Joe Stewardson), 1976 – Death of a Snowman (Director: Christopher Rowley), 1977 – Mister Deathman (Director: Michael D. Moore), 1978 – The Wild Geese (Director: Andrew V. McLaglen), 1978 – Billy Boy (Director: Tim Spring), 1980 – April 1980 (Director: Jan Scholtz), 1981 – Safari 3000 (Director: Harry Hurwitz), 1983 – Auf Achse (German TV Series) (Episode: Konvoi) (Director: Hartmut Griesmayr), 1984 – The Lion’s Share (Director: Norman Cohen), 1986 – Hostage (Director: Hanro Möhr), 1987 – Steel Dawn (Director: Lance Hool), 1987 – Code Name Vengeance (uncredited) (Director: David Winters), 1987 – Outlaw of Gor / Gor II (Director: John ‘Bud’ Cardos), 1987 – Skeleton Coast (Director: John ‘Bud’ Cardos), 1988 – Red Scorpion (Director: Joseph Zito), 1988 – Howling IV: The Original Nightmare (Director: John Hough), 1988 – Merchants of War (Director: Peter M. Mackenzie), 1990 – Oddball Hall (Director: Jackson Hunsicker).