He’s so good in Forgotten Pisolero, the real heart of the movie
Sad to here. R.I.P. Peter, always enjoined his acting.
Just found an interesting obituary. There is mentioned that Martell left his home town Bozen at the age of 17, worked as a dishwasher on cargo ships and was a former Mister Italy before he started acting. He should have been acting beside of Bud Spencer in “Dio perdona… io no!” but broke his leg and was replaced by Terence Hill. 1994 he returned to Bozen and started 2001 a comeback as an actor. In 1997 there was a biograhic documentary made called “Starring Peter Martell”. You can watch a short clip of this 43 Minutes documentary on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAr1fdZ6paY
Some more information at:
http://portal.zeligfilm.it/index.php?option=com_zelig&view=production&id=61
I’ve heard that he once tried to commit suicide :’(.
Full documentary now online, in Italian with English subtitles.
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Man, that was some sad shit. Thanks for posting though.
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yes and with the amazing score from Pistolero dell Ave Maria…
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I’ve always wondered what his real name was – Martell or Martellanza, Peter or Pietro. He was born in Bozen/Bolzano, so I was never sure whether he came from a German- or Italian-speaking family or both. “Martell” is a fairly common surname, and there’s a small municipality with that name (Italian: Martello) in South Tyrol (Alto Adige). Fabrizio Favro’s film now shows a document that gives his name as Pietro Martellanz. @JonathanCorbett, can you tell by Martellanz’s dialect/accent where he’s from?
in Alto Adige they also have a dialect called ladinian (I think?)
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Martellanz and Martelanc are rather uncommon surnames, most likely of Slovenian origin, found in the area of Trieste about a hundred years ago and often - but clearly not in this case - changed to Martellani by the fascist authorities.
Today the variant Martelanz can be found in Styria, in the southeast of Austria. As far as I know Martellanza is a surname that does not exist in Italy.
It’s not the typical accent of German speakers, it is Italian with a little bit of… Roman dialect! Consequently I can’t tell… 
Surnames Martellani and Martelanz in Italy
From Gli esecutori (1976)
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Yes, Ladin, a Rhaeto-Romance dialect.
You’re right. It’s quite common there.