Giovanni Lombardo Radice (23 September 1954 – 27 April 2023) was an Italian actor, screenwriter and theatre director. He was best known to film audiences for his roles in horror films, several of which became cult classics. He was sometimes credited under the stage name John Morghen.

Early life

Radice was born in Rome in September 1954, into a prominent local family. His father, Lucio, was a mathematician and a leading member of the Communist Party. His paternal grandfather was the pedagogist Giuseppe Lombardo Radice. His uncle, Pietro Ingrao, was a prominent politician, journalist, and World War II partisan. He was the first Communist to become President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, a position he held from 1976 to 1979. Radice studied to become a ballet dancer, but his career was sidelined by a back injury in his teenage years. After brief stint as a physical therapist, he decided to become an actor.

Career

After classical training, he started a Shakespearean company called The Swan Company (named after The Swan) at the age of 19. He was a successful stage actor for several years, but by his account was "a terrible administrator" and struggled financially. After a chance meeting with Ruggero Deodato's mother-in-law, he became acquainted with the director, and after a successful audition was cast in his 1980 horror film The House on the Edge of the Park. Throughout the 1980s, Radice appeared in many Italian cult films such as Cannibal Apocalypse (1980), City of the Living Dead (1980), Stage Fright (1987) and The Church (1989). Radice is best known for his villainous roles in Italian horror films, and notably for the spectacular and gruesome death scenes his characters semi-regularly fall victim to. In several interviews, he reportedly stated that he wished he had never portrayed Mike Logan in Cannibal Ferox, criticizing the movie for being both fascist and racist and abusive towards animals. After his family criticized him for using his family name to create incredibly violent films, Radice adopted the stage name John Morghen, taking the anglicized form of his first name (Giovanni becomes John) and using his maternal grandmother's maiden name as his last name (Morghen). Radice’s last public appearance was at the 2023 Romford Horror Film Festival alongside Silvia Collatina.

Personal life

Lombardo Radice was married to actress Alessandra Panelli (b. 1957) from 1989 until his death. They had one child. Lombardo Radice was trilingual, fluent in English and French as well as his native Italian. The writer Marco Lombardo Radice was his elder brother. Radice often posted texts criticizing social injustice, capitalism and corruption in Italy. He wrote about having a cocaine addiction when younger.

Death

Lombardo Radice died on 27 April 2023, at the age of 68, the same day as his Cannibal Apocalypse co-star Ramiro Oliveros.

Filmography