The Genoese actor Paolo Calissano, the famous face of successful fiction in the 1990s-2000s, from ‘Doctor Gio’ to ‘Linda e il Brigadiere’, up to ‘Vivere’, was found dead in his home in Rome. the first information circulated, in the house in the Balduina district, several packs of medicines were found, psychotropic drugs that the actor was taking apparently to cure the depression he was suffering from. The pills were in the room, on the nightstand next to the bed, on the floor and also scattered in the kitchen.The investigators hypothesize that the death is due to an overdose of drugs, yet to be ascertained whether accidental or voluntary.
The lifeless body of the popular actor was found after 11pm by the police, who arrived due to the alarm given by his partner who could not get in touch with him. No signs of forced entry or violence on the body. The house seemed in order. The carabinieri and the coroner intervened on the spot. It will be the autopsy to ascertain the exact causes of death.
Calissano, 54, was involved in a dramatic drug affair in 2005: a woman, Ana Lucia Bandeira, a Brazilian dancer mother of two, died in the actor’s apartment in Genoa from an overdose of cocaine. Calissano had been arrested on suspicion of giving her drugs, and was sentenced to four years in prison. In 2008, he was again in the news in a car accident following which he was found positive for cocaine.
Paolo Calissano was born in Genoa on February 18, 1967. The son of an Air Force officer and a noblewoman, Mercedes Galeotti de ‘Teasti of the Counts of Mantua, he began working in the 1980s in a television commercial, and then perfected the acting technique in 1990 at the Boston University School of Arts. After some experiences with photo novels, he made his debut in cinema (“Palermo-Milan one way”) and on television. It became popular thanks to fiction: the American series ‘General Hospital’, “Doctor Gio” with Barbara D’Urso, the Italian soap operas “Vivere” and “Vento di ponente”, shot right in his city. In 2004 he also participated in the second edition of the “Island of the famous”, but retired due to a knee injury.
In recent years, its popularity has been clouded by the news. For the death of Ana Lucia Bandeira, the actor served his sentence in the Community for drug addicts “Fermata d’Autobus” in Trofarello. Free thanks to the pardon in 2007, he returned to recite at the Brancaccio Theater in Rome in the musical “A step from the dream”, which he left following a malaise. Then a car accident and again cocaine, of which Calissano later spoke on several occasions, recounting his torment.
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