In the eastern outskirts of Naples, between the neighborhoods of San Giovanni a Teduccio and Gianturco, there is a mural by the street artist Raffaele Liuzzi which portrays Bud Spencer smiling and in the iconic yellow safari-style shirt worn at the time of “Piedone l’africano”. Next to his unmistakable face stands out a phrase that is the symbol of an indissoluble bond: “I am not Italian… I am Neapolitan”. In the Spanish Quarters there is instead the work, entitled “Bud”, by the artist sculptor Mario Schianowhich portrays the stylised face of Carlo Pedersoli in the manner of pop art. Special tributes that are now part of the city and that every day give back to passers-by in the streets of the centre and the outskirts the indelible memory of the actor, swimmer, water polo player, screenwriter, singer and musician who passed away on 27 June 2016.
Eight years after the death of one of the legends of spaghetti western (and not only), the memory of the bond between Bud Spencer and his Naples is still vivid. And he breathes not only on the walls of the streets that lead from Santa Lucia to the seafront, but also through the many declarations of total love released over the years by the David di Donatello Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010, who became famous as an actor thanks to the films he shot together with Terence Hill, some considered true cinema cults, like «They called him Trinity». Starting with the words written about him by his lifelong friend Luciano DeCrescenzo, who grew up in the same building as Bud Spencer in via Generale Giordano Orsini, at number 40, in the book «The suspended coffee. Daily wisdom in small sips (Mondadori, 1993)”: “I was born on the third floor of a building with a sea view. My friend Carlo Pedersoli was born on the first floor of the same building. He was gigantic. At thirteen he was at least 20 centimeters taller than me. With him next to me no one could touch me. We crossed Via Santa Lucia as and when we wanted. We were schoolmates in primary school and middle school, then life divided us: I became an engineer and then a writer, while he became a swimming champion and then an actor. Today he is called Bud Spencer. A couple of years ago I met Carlo at the Hotel Vesuvio and I proposed to him that we go and see the building where we were born together. Except that on the street we were stopped by two street urchins from Pallonetto. ‘Bud Spensèr, how beautiful’ said one of the two, placing – as is the rule in Naples, the accent on the second e of the surname Spencer. ‘How we liked to have you like Bud Spensér’. And the other: ‘Should we call you dad?’”.
A memory that seals what Bud Spencer, for Neapolitans precisely Bud Spensér, was and continues to be humanly and not only artistically for Naples. The gentle giant of Italian cinema spent words of love for the city until a few months before his passing. In 2015, during a meeting with the then mayor of Naples Luigi De Magistris, Pedersoli confirmed the iconic phrase later immortalized on the mural, adding a second important clarification in dialect: “I am Neapolitan before being Italian. Naples is Naples, Italy nun se sap c’rè”.
The wife and the engines
The words of the actor’s wife also seal the mutual love between Neapolitans and their fellow citizen Bud Spencer Mary Loved: «He would have laughed about the mythologization that there is now of my husband, considered almost saintly. I have letters that make me cry, because of how beautiful they are. It’s the fans who say: “You gave us the serenity, the joy of watching with our children the films we watched with our fathers.‘”». Spencer and his wife spoke about their relationship, which lasted over 50 years, in an interview with Corriere della Sera a year before he died: «I haven’t had rival women, but engines», she said: «He goes crazy for engines. We even had a tugboat: he loved going to the shipyard, the smell of the workshops seemed like nectar to him». And he: «I’ve never even gone for a coffee with an actress. You can make mistakes, but when you realize that the person next to you fills your life, then you have to respect them»,
The tributes
Not just his Naples. Bud Spencer was and still is loved in many other European cities, especially German and Hungarian ones. In Budapest, for example, they even dedicated a statue to him. While in Berlin there is the Bud Spencer Museum.
Bud “visionary”: this is how society will change
Among the many memories that have appeared on the web on the eighth anniversary of his death, one in particular has emerged in recent hours, which highlights an unpublished, little-narrated side of the actor, on his ability to predict the social dynamics(s) of the future . In 1996 in Florence, during an exhibition focused on the market, multimedia and telematics, Pedersoli showed off his visionary nature with prophetic words at the time: «When we, through the computer, order food from the delicatessen, when we have relationships with others through the computer, when we enter the homes and private lives of others – this will happen in a few years – at this point society will change, our way of living will change.” Yet another surprising quality of a man who, before dedicating himself to cinema, was the Italian freestyle swimming champion, the first to dip under one minute in the 100 meters, as well as, among his many other passions, an expert airplane pilot and of helicopter.
