SHORT TAKES : Italian Actor Aldo Fabrizi Dies

Aldo Fabrizi, the Italian actor who sprang to international fame as the courageous priest executed by Nazis in Roberto Rossellini’s classic film “Rome, Open City,” died Monday at 84.

Fabrizi, whose death was announced by his family, had been suffering from heart problems for the past year. A native Roman from a poor family, Fabrizi never lost his common touch. One of Italy’s most popular actors, he began his career in the theater in 1931 and made his first film 10 years later.

In 1945 Rossellini chose the rotund Fabrizi to play Don Pietro, a Roman priest who defied the Fascists during the German occupation of the capital and was tortured and executed because he would not betray partisans.