Mario Lastrucci

Mario Lastrucci (b. Italy, **/**/1933? – d. South Africa, 14/05/1985) was an occasional actor.

Biography

Italian-born Mario Lastrucci immigrated to South Africa as a child with his parents, Alfredo and Caterina, and became a South African citizen in 1955. He was trained as a motor mechanic, but then became a professional boxer. However, after his friend Jimmy Elliott was killed in the ring, he hung up his gloves. In the early sixties he acted in three movies: Emil Nofal’s Hou die Blink Kant Bo (1960), followed by two films for Al Debbo, Boerboel de Wet (1961) and Tom Dirk en Herrie (1962). After that he moved into the music industry, first as a jazz drummer and then as a disc jockey in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, a time when he was known as “Babyshoes”. In 1972 he was briefly in the news when, at the age of 39, he and 19-year-old Gail Jones were married against her parents’ wishes. In 1985 he appeared in the television series Seeduiker, directed by Jan Engelen, which was released after his death.