Former 'Bicycle Thieves' child star Enzo Staiola dies at 85

Ladri di Biciclette, translated as Bicycle Thieves, star Enzo Staiola passed away at age 85.

The former child actor, who played the sad-faced son Bruno Ricci in Vittorio De Sica’s 1948 Neo-realist masterpiece, breathed his last on Wednesday, June 4, according to Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

As of yet no cause of death has been revealed.

Notably, Staiola rose to international fame for his role in the Oscar-winning drama, a part initially rejected by his parents, before his uncle reintroduced the preteen to the renowned Italian director.

In a July 2023 interview with the publication, the late actor looked back on his first meeting with De Sica.

While walking home from school, Staiola noticed a car trailing him. Shortly after, a well-dressed, grey-haired man stepped out and asked his name.

Staiola remained silent. When the man asked, "Don’t you talk?" he replied, "I don’t feel like talking," keeping his mother’s warning in mind about not being too familiar with strangers.

"But De Sica followed me home. My parents recognised him right away," the Italian actor recalled. "He was a famous actor. He sat at the table in our house and tried to convince them to let me act in his new film. But they didn’t want to."

It is pertinent to know that despite the show’s critical acclaim, Staiola did not appear in any other films.

"De Sica was like that; he discovered you, and then that was it. Maybe if he had followed me and made me other proposals I would have become an actor for life," Staiola recalled in the 2023 interview.