Thousands Pay Last Respects to Mastroianni in Rome

Thousands streamed to Rome’s Capitoline Hill city hall Saturday to pay last respects to actor Marcello Mastroianni, who died of cancer in Paris on Thursday at 72.

His body was flown back to Italy earlier Saturday and will lie in state in the Michelangelo-designed palace until a civil funeral today at his family tomb.

“Mastroianni was a great interpreter of Italian art and as an ambassador of this art in the world, he showed exemplary humanity,” said President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who was one of the first to file past the simple wooden coffin.

Mastroianni starred in about 160 films opposite many of cinema’s most beautiful women. He made 12 movies with Italian diva Sophia Loren but was best known for his role in Federico Fellini’s 1960 film “La Dolce Vita” (The Sweet Life).